


A Game of... Bug and Chat

by JuliaFC



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Flirty Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Flirty Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Fluff, Flustered Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Flustered Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Humor, Identity Reveal, Romance, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:29:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26065015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuliaFC/pseuds/JuliaFC
Summary: After a revealing dream, Marinette discovers the identity of her Minou and decides to spice up the reveal with a game of cat and mouse. She knows she shouldn’t change his Miraculous, or ‘role-reverse’ by punning and flirting with him… but an easily flustered Adrien makes it all *very* tempting. Will she keep her cool when the tables will turn? Read & find out! Adrinette a-plenty!
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 110
Kudos: 243
Collections: August 2020 - Exchange, Miraculous Ladybug and Cat/Chat Noir Reveal





	1. A Revealing Dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fictionalinfinity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictionalinfinity/gifts).



[ ](https://www.deviantart.com/rosehealer02/gallery/74950906/miraculous-a-game-of-bug-and-chat)

**Betas: Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Speckleflower, anonymousfriend27, liminal.shadow, Khanofallorcs**

**Big thanks to: Genxha and Khanofallorcs for all their great help!**

**Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.**

**Written for: Fictionalinfinity**

**She requested: "I’m not looking for anything particular, but my favorites include group chat fics, identity reveals, crack treated seriously, idiots-to-lovers, etc. honestly, go wild! You don’t have to include Alya, Nino, or Chloe but I wouldn’t mind seeing them pop up. Favorite sides of the love square are adrienette and marichat." Hope you will like it hun, I think it ticks all the requests :)**

**oOo**

###  **Chapter 1 - A revealing dream**

Marinette woke with a start, her eyes shooting open and her mind still fully wrapped in the memory of her dream. Her face and her whole body were covered in sweat; she passed a hand through her damp hair, taking some of the locks out of her eyes. Her dream was still so vivid in her head that she couldn’t think of anything else.

“Are you okay, Marinette?” came a voice from her left, causing her to gasp. She darted her gaze around the room, trying to find out who had spoken, and only when her eyes met the concerned big blue ones of her little kwami friend did her heart stop racing in her chest. She sighed a breath of relief.

“Oh Tikki, yes I’m okay.” She passed a hand through her sweat-damp hair again and sighed. “I think.”

Her little friend flew in front of her nose and gave it a little pat. “The usual nightmare again? The one about Chat Blanc?”

Memories of icy-cold blue eyes made her shiver from tip to toe. “No, Tikki. This was different. Still a dream… but not a bad one.” She gulped dryly. “And not about him… or I mean, not about Chat Blanc.” She felt blood rushing to her cheeks as her voice started cracking. She kicked herself. Why would her voice need to crack at all? 

“Who then? Was it still Chat Noir?” 

Marinette nodded. “Yes. And no… I mean, it was Mister Bug, can you believe it? I still see the mental picture of my dream, those piercing green eyes, Tikki…” She felt her blush deepening. Probably her cheeks were rivalling the colour of her spotted friend by now. Her heart was pounding madly in her chest as she sat up and hid her face behind her hands. 

“Mister Bug?” Marinette peeked through her fingers and noticed immediately the look of utter puzzlement that Tikki was giving her. “Was he trying to kill you as well?”

“No, Tikki. He was telling me that he loved me… that he wanted to marry me and have a house, three kids and a hamster.” She moved into a crouched position and hid her face in her legs. 

Tikki stroked her wet hair softly. “I wouldn’t really think a dream like that could possibly cause such a reaction, Marinette. You know that Chat Noir loves you, and that’s the same whichever form he takes.”

Marinette sniffed loudly, her face still buried behind her legs. “No, not that, Tikki. But as he was saying that, his face faded into--”

“Chat Blanc?” interrupted Tikki.

Marinette shook her head and started sobbing. “No. _Adrien_!” She heard Tikki gasp and her sobs became louder. “His face, his eyes… I was looking at him as he said that he loved me and his face faded so perfectly into that of Adrien that it scared me! His eyes didn’t even change. They were Adrien’s eyes, Tikki.”

Marinette jumped out of bed and fanned her sweaty neck as she hastily climbed the steps that separated her mezzanine from her bedroom downstairs. She sat at her computer, turned on her screen and opened her browser, typing on the address line the url of the Ladyblog. She scrolled the blog down until she reached a section labelled ‘special feature’ and then clicked on the pictures from the day Chat and Ladybug were forced to swap kwamis. She clicked on a picture of Mr Bug and blew it up, until his face was as big as her whole screen. 

“I think Alya may have been the cause of this,” said Tikki. “Weren't you with her the whole afternoon, in her room, getting this ‘special issue’ of the Ladyblog up and running? How many times did I hear her telling you how handsome Mr Bug was and how gorgeous his eyes were?”

“‘Only Sunshine child has eyes this green’ she said, if I recall correctly. And she rubbed his pictures on your face for hours. No wonder you dreamed about it…” the kwami continued.

“No, Tikki!” Marinette interrupted her. “I mean, yes, she did rub the pictures in front of my eyes all afternoon, true, but she’s done the same so many times with pictures of Chat Noir. She’s also photoshopped a black cat suit on some pictures of Adrien a few times and showed them to me, but they never left such a lasting effect. No…”

She sighed and moved the windows of her screen in a way that the picture of Mr Bug was put right next to one of the pictures of Adrien she had on her desktop collage. Her gaze kept darting from left to right, as she busied her hands combing her hair into pigtails. She felt so hot that she couldn’t keep her hair loose on her shoulders. She looked in disgust at her sweaty hands and cleaned them by wiping them on her pyjamas trousers before holding the mouse again, and drifting her attention back to the picture of Mr Bug on the screen. The more her gaze moved from Mr Bug to Adrien, the more the uneasy feeling she felt in her stomach was deteriorating into a painful knot. 

"How can I unsee this, Tikki? How could I not have seen it before?" She cupped her hands at the sides of her face and growled in utter frustration. "You know I'm right, don't you? You do know who Chat is…"

Tikki sighed. "Marinette, you're the Guardian. You do know that if you want to find out who Chat Noir is, you have the right to ask him to drop his transformation in front of you. While Fu was the Guardian, it was okay for you two to not know each other’s identity. But now, you have all rights to know. You may have a _duty_ to know, actually. To protect the Miraculous itself, and Chat Noir too.”

The last thing she said did it for Marinette. Yes, maybe the kwami was right, after all. If anything happened to Chat Noir, she, as the Guardian, had to be able to know where to find him. If Plagg was feeling sick, Chat Noir had the right to know that he could take his kwami to her to be healed -- after all, Fu hadn’t taught her the incantation to cure the kwamis without a reason. Tikki had become sick once, Plagg may be next. And where would Chat Noir go, if Ladybug kept being so adamant to keep her identity a secret? Marinette weighed the idea in her mind, and strangely enough, it started to make sense. 

"But… what's the fun in that?" mused Marinette, tapping her index finger on her chin. "If you think that it's time for our reveal, I may as well have a little fun in the process."

"What do you have in mind, Marinette?" Tikki frowned at her, and raised an eyebrow.

"Let's make it into a game," Marinette said with a cheeky smile on her lips, as she gave a last look at Mr Bug’s picture. "A game of cat and mouse… or rather," she giggled, "a game of _Bug..._ and _Chat_!" She winked at Tikki. "Let me explain my plan, but first, I’ll take a shower!"

oOo

Adrien didn’t know what woke him up. He opened his eyes and felt a sense of panic spreading all over him. His heart raced in his chest all of sudden, as he caught a glimpse of something red flying out of his window and disappearing in the darkness. 

Something felt wrong… but for a brief moment he couldn’t quite make out exactly what it was. He moved his hand to reach out for Plagg, seeking comfort from the presence of his furry friend on the pillow next to him, but his hand was met with emptiness. He hastily scanned the pillow with his hand, as a knot formed in his stomach and his heart started racing in a newly found home in his throat. 

"Plagg?" he whispered, but nobody answered back. He sat up in pure horror. The flash of red he'd seen when he woke up. Could that be… he touched the finger he usually wore his Miraculous on and instead of the usual comforting feel of the metal wrapping his skin, he found nothing. He picked up his phone and turned on the screen to create some light and looked at his hand. 

His ring was gone. 

"Plagg? PLAGG?" He screamed the name of his friend; he jumped out of bed and started rushing around his room, looking everywhere on the ground for his missing ring. Maybe… maybe in his sleep he had moved too much and the ring had fallen off his finger. But he couldn’t find anything. What was going on? Had his Lady decided to get rid of him? Without telling him anything? Why? He didn't think he'd done anything wrong the previous night on patrol… 

He passed a hand on his wild bed hair and then rested it on his desk, and that's when he felt something that he hadn’t left there the night before, when he went to bed. He moved the screen of his phone towards the desk and his heart stopped when he saw what he'd touched with his hand. It was a letter, and a box. The box of a Miraculous. 

"What the…" he started to say.

"Hi Chaton," the message on the letter said. "Please don't worry. I don’t know who you are and I'm not replacing you. I only need your Miraculous for an experiment; I'll give it back to you, I promise! Until then, I’ve sent Tikki to your place with a replacement, she will leave her there when she takes Plagg. Please treat her well."

He looked at the neatly written words on the page in utter amazement. Why? Why did his Lady take Plagg away from him without notice? An experiment? Couldn't have she spoken to him about it before? His hand felt naked without his ring. He looked at the ring finger of his right hand and physically felt the absence of the metallic band like a void that pierced his soul. What was this replacement thing?

He picked the box up with a pout on his face, and opened it. Inside was a little jewel that looked like a bracelet. Or maybe a necklace? No, it was more like… a collar? In a flash of light, a kwami he had never seen appeared in front of him. She was brown with a white, pointy spot on her face and longish drop ears.

“Oh, hi there,” she said. “Nice to meet you, handsome boy.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “I’m Barkk, the kwami of premonition. And at this current moment in time, I’m starving.”

 _You must be kidding me,_ Adrien thought. _The Dog Miraculous? Seriously? What was M’lady thinking? First off, I’m much more a cat person than a dog person and besides that… brown isn’t even my colour. Black is much cooler. Is this some sort of joke?_

His hand reached the nape of his neck as he thought that and he sat on the side of his bed, clenching his fists in frustration. He was thinking of how he would have told his Lady off for taking Plagg away from him, when he felt a sharp pain in the side of his hand, as if someone had… _nipped_ him?

“OUCH!” he growled and jerked his hand away from the brown kwami, trying to soothe the sharp pain by holding it tight with his other hand. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Barkk gave him a sly look as she said, mockingly, “That’s what you get for being rude.”

“Oh,” Adrien said, eyes-wide, his cheeks dusting a slight shade of pink. “Did I say all of that aloud?” Barkk nodded. “Oh, I’m sorry, Barkk… I didn’t mean it. I’m just… tired. And upset. I want Plagg back!”

“What has that moany cat got that I haven’t?” Barkk’s frown turned into an annoyed glare. She pouted and folded her paws on her chest. 

Adrien paled. “Oh no, it’s not that!” He put his hands protectively in front of him, but Barkk didn’t lose her pout. “I’m sure that you have as many qualities as Plagg, and that you’re a very pleasant companion. But…” He sighed. “Plagg is my friend. We’ve gone through so much together. I… don’t want to lose him. That’s all.”

“Aw, aren’t you sweet…” she purred. Okay, maybe purred wasn’t the right way to describe it, since she was a dog, but he was lacking better descriptive words. “I’m still not very happy, but I’m willing to temporarily forget about it, if you give me some food. I’m starving!”

Oh yes. She had mentioned that earlier. “Plagg is going to kill me, but you can snack off his stash of Camembert, if you like,” Adrien said. 

The kwami grimaced in disgust. “Ew. Just ew. Camembert? No, thank you. The mere smell of it makes me sick. It’s already hard for me to stop gagging by smelling its foul reek coming from inside that press (she pointed at where Plagg hid his cheese). Don’t rub it in my nose, please!”

“Uh… sorry about that.” Adrien’s hand reached the nape of his neck. “I don’t really have any more food now… Do you fancy some fruit? I may be able to get some downstairs!”

“Fruit? No. Do you have any meat?”

They discussed possible snacks and Adrien even ventured downstairs with her, tiptoeing his way out of his room to dodge Gorilla, who was thankfully dozing off, perched on a chair near the door of his bedroom. He showed her around the kitchen of the mansion for some time, to let her choose her own snack, but it came out that Barkk was a very picky eater and she wouldn’t settle for anything else than what she had in mind. Only… she had no idea what she had in mind, since she hadn’t been out of the Miracle Box for nearly 180 years.

“Barkk… I don’t have time for this. It’s three o’clock in the morning, and I have to go to school tomorrow!” Adrien had a huge headache and his eyes were closing over. He was so tired he couldn’t think straight. “Why don’t we transform so we can go to a convenience store and you can choose whatever you want?”

“I’m not going to tell you my words if you don’t stop being rude.” Barkk snorted and folded her paws on her chest. 

Adrien face-palmed. “I’m _sorry_. I really don’t want to be rude to you. But how can I help you if you don’t let me? You don’t like the food we have. I’m not allowed out of the mansion. The only way out we have is through the window, and to do that, I need to transform. Please. Can you forgive me?” He put his palms together in prayer and closed his eyes shut. When he dared opening an eye to take a peek, he saw that Barkk was staring at him with an eyebrow raised. She looked amused.

“Okay, I will forgive you. I’m too hungry to hold a grudge on you.” She gave Adrien a small nod when she saw the bright smile that Adrien shot to her. “Ah, Sass told me that you were quite handsome. Stop smiling at me like that, I can’t concentrate.” 

Adrien winked. “And what else did Sass tell you about me?"

"That you're very stubborn." She giggled at his surprised look. "But that you love greatly, and that your love is pure. I will tell you my words. To transform you say, 'Run forward'. To detransform you say, 'Cool off'."

Adrien had blushed profusely when Barkk mentioned what Sass had said about him. Stubborn… well, he didn't blame Sass for thinking so. After all, 25,913 times were _a lot_ of times to reuse _Second Chance_. His thoughts went back briefly to that battle against Desperada and he felt a ghastly shiver run down his spine. But as he heard the transformation phrase, his lips curled into a smirk. "Thank you, Barkk. Let's try them out, shall we?" He waited for the kwami to nod and donned the Miraculous. It felt so strange wearing a collar on his neck. Did Ladybug want to put him on a leash? Ugh… he quickly scrapped that thought off his head, before he said that aloud again, and ended up offending Barkk once more. 

"Barkk, run forward!" he said, as a wave of golden energy wrapped around him. It was familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time. It was slightly foreign to him, but he did recognise the euphoria, and the sheer happiness of finally being able to stretch your legs. He thought that may be what Barkk was feeling. 180 years was a long time. 

He looked at himself in the reflection of his window and he kind of liked what he saw. The Miraculous on his neck had become a full sized dog collar, with a little diamond shaped tag at the centre engraved with the letters L and B. His body was covered with a suit that reminded him a little of Rena's, in the sense that the colours were similar, brown at the back, arms and legs and white at the front, from his chest down to his crotch, white gloves and white paw decorated boots. A quick glance behind him showed him that he had a fluffy, brown and white tail. The drooping ears that decorated his head were also long, and brown. The mask he wore covered the top part of his face like his cat mask, but also curled at both sides of his nose like dog lips and was white, with brown borders. A white slit ran across the centre of his forehead.

It looked very different from his cat look, except for one thing. His hair was the exact same shape. His eyes were still his own, like it had been when he'd become Mr Bug. At his side he saw a whip. Barkk had forgotten to tell him what her power entailed, but he supposed that he didn't need to know that until an akuma showed up. 

"Let's see what this new suit can do!" He picked up the whip and gave it a crack, noticing how its end easily wrapped around the legs of his bed, but released it when he thought that it should. Cool. He liked his baton better, but this whip would help him get around. He jumped onto the edge of his window and out in the darkness, missing his night vision terribly.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Hi there! Yes, new story! I wrote this one for the August 2020 exchange of my Miraculous Discord server, so I've been pretty busy writing it, but I couldn't post it until today, sorry guys. Hope that Fictionalinfinity will like it :) Still not finished, but I'm very close to the ending of it. Will try to publish it quite fast. 2 or 3 times a week? Would love your opinions, as usual, please hit that comment button and let me know what you think! I've had this plot buny jumping in my head for a while and luckily it filled the bill for my exchange request beautifully. So you get to read it.** **As usual, thanks so much to my wonderful betas, in particular to Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, genxha and Khanofallorcs** **Also, thank you so much to Rose Manley for the beautiful cover for this story. She chose it to create a comic (I'm so excited about it!), you will find it by clicking on the cover at the top of the page.** **See you in a couple of days for chapter 2! Please comment!**


	2. An Embarrassing Situation!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written by: JuliaFC
> 
> Betas: Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Speckleflower, anonymousfriend27, liminal . shadow , Khanofallorcs
> 
> Big thanks to: Genxha and Khanofallorcs for all their great help!
> 
> Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Adrien landed near a convenience store that he spotted open, and ducked into a nearby dark alley to detransform. He quickly massaged his sore bum, before letting the transformation drop. The amount of times he had missed the target with the whip and had fallen right on his derrière… he wondered how Ladybug could do it so skillfully. When he had tried using her yoyo as Mr Bug, he remembered that it was even harder to maneuver than this whip. His respect for his partner grew exponentially, as his bum felt even more sore than before, under his touch. He made a promise to himself to do some more exercise with the whip before heading home, as he didn't know when the next akuma attack was going to be, and didn't want to embarrass himself by landing on his bum in front of the akuma - or worse, in front of Ladybug. _That_ he wouldn't have been able to take. His pride would have been too hurt.

"Barkk, cool off!" he whispered. The silence of the night was so deafening that he feared somebody would hear his detransformation words, had he used his normal tone of voice.

"I'm even hungrier now," said Barkk with a pout.

Adrien sighed. "I'm sorry. I tried to be transformed the least I could, but I needed to get here. That's a store that sells food and is open 24/7. They will surely have something for you to eat."

Barkk gave him a good, long look. "Sorry to ask, but…" She was still staring, so Adrien's gaze moved to his clothes and body and he felt his face getting very warm. He cursed in his head as the kwami continued tentatively, "I know I've been in the miracle box for nearly 180 years, but… is it _normal_ for humans to go around wearing Ladybug shaped shoes and Ladybug spotted trousers, nowadays?"

Even more blood rushed to his face, as he noticed the mentioned Ladybug shaped slippers he was wearing. He didn't even remember putting them on. He must have done it without thinking. "No, it's not… those are my pyjamas and home slippers," he whispered, moving his hand to the nape of his neck and giving Barkk a sheepish smile. Then he paled considerably, his eyes growing wide. "Bugger! I forgot my wallet!"

"So let me understand." Barkk folded her paws on her chest and frowned. "You're telling me that not only you're indecent and can't come out of this alley, but you also have no means to buy my food?"

Adrien's sheepish smile widened, his hand firmly stuck massaging the nape of his neck. "Sorry…" he muttered.

"For the sake of the Mighty Creator!" Barkk facepalmed. "What did Master Fu even see in you?"

Adrien pouted. That comment hurt him in so many ways. He was going to retort something when his heart froze, because a tall brunette that had just come out of the convenience store suddenly collided into him, having walked absent-mindedly into the alley where he was hiding. His bum felt even more sore (having fallen again on it), and so did his forehead, where the girl had banged into him. "Ouch," he muttered.

"I'm so sorry!" said the girl without even looking at him. "I wasn't paying attention and didn't see you here… HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" she suddenly screamed when she saw his face. "You must be joking, right? I can't have just stumped across THE Adrien Agreste on my way out of the convenience store!"

Just. His. Luck. Had to be one of his fans? How unlucky can you get in one night?

"Uh… no… what are you talking about…?" He was thinking fast, trying to get out of this embarrassing situation. It was already bad enough that someone was seeing him wearing his pyjamas and slippers (and with his bed hair…), without counting the fact that he was out of the mansion at three o'clock in the morning… he couldn't afford this girl taking a picture of him and putting it online…. "I'm not Adrien Agreste… everybody always thinks I'm him. I'm just a lookalike…"

She raised an eyebrow and looked at him in absolute disbelief. "Your lies don't work with me. I would recognise your voice anywhere, Adrien. I've listened to all the interviews you had on TV at least one million times. I know every single inflection of your voice by heart."

_Shoot_ , Adrien thought. His expression must have matched his thoughts, because the girl burst in a laugh.

"You're really funny though." She kept laughing and then gave him a sly look from tip to toe. "And… nice shorts and slippers, by the way. Are you a fan of Ladybug by any chance?" She stood up and lent him a hand, helping him to get off the ground. His pyjamas trousers fell back into place, covering again the whole length of his legs.

Adrien's face became really, really hot. "Uh… yeah… about that…" He gulped. "I… would really appreciate it if you could…" But he couldn't finish his sentence, because the girl moved fast next to him, pointing the selfie camera of her phone to both, and took a picture. He saw her typing fast and grabbed her hands. "PLEASE! Don't put this on the internet!"

"You're joking right? You don't get chances like this all the time!" But she didn't keep writing and she gave him a cunning look. "By the way… what is the great Adrien doing out of his golden mansion at 3 am hiding in an alley in his pyjamas?"

He gulped again. "I-if i tell you, can you please not post this picture?"

"I can't promise," she drawled, her gaze still scanning every bit of him. "But it would certainly help…"

_Think fast, Adrien. What can you tell her? You need a convincing story that she would believe, this time_ , he thought. "U-uh… I… sleepwalk." His hand went to the nape of his neck as he blushed profusely. "A-and now I'm hungry and don't have any money with me. I don't even know where I am, so would you please tell me where the Agreste mansion is? I don't want to bump into someone else before heading home…" He couldn't finish what he was saying, because he suddenly saw a 20 euro banknote being rubbed in front of his nose and then put it firmly into his hand.

"There you go, handsome. Go and get yourself something to eat. And your house is that way." She pointed in the direction he had come from. Then she took a piece of paper (hang on, no. That was one of his _pictures_. Did his fans walk around carrying pictures of him?) and a pen out of her purse and gave it to him, her cheeks lightly dusted in pink. "Could you please… to Janine…"

He gave her a puzzled look, but then his gaze softened and his lips curled in a bright smile. He took the picture and the pen from her hands, failing to notice how red her face had become. "Of course! Thank you so much, Janine!" He quickly scribbled a dedication and signed the picture. Her smile when she saw it was like a gift.

"You're welcome," she said shyly. But immediately after having put the picture back into her purse, she shot him another cunning look. "I can't promise you that the picture won't go online, though. My sisters will have a heart attack when I show it to them!" She smiled and waved, and ran off.

Adrien facepalmed. Great, now he really was in trouble, he thought. He looked at the 20 euro banknote and cringed. He really hoped that this story wasn't going to come out. How was he going to explain this to Nathalie? Or worse, to his father? He would be grounded for the rest of his days!

"At least now you can buy me some food," whispered Barkk, who had hidden herself behind his head all that time. She came out of her hiding spot and started floating in front of his face.

"Yeah, _right_!" Adrien muttered and entered the store stomping his feet, after shooting her a deadly glare.

It took several walks around the store, and at least ten different attempts, before Barkk finally settled on one snack she really seemed to fancy. To Adrien's dismay, it was a very smelly dry beef treat for dogs. "Why do I always get stuck with the ones who love smelly food?" muttered Adrien when he went to the till to pay.

The cashier took the treat from his hand and said, "That's five euros fifty." Then she looked at him and her eyes became as wide as saucers. Adrien sighed, as he knew what was coming. He tried to damage control.

"There you go." He slammed the 20 euro banknote on the desk and hissed quietly, "Yes, it's me. Adrien Agreste. Buying dog food treats in my pyjamas at 3 am. And yes, I'm a fan of Ladybug. Now please can you keep this quiet?" He saw the amused look on her face. " _Please_!" he repeated, looking at her with his best attempt at puppy eyes he'd done in years.

The cashier's amused look turned into a smile. "Of course," she said. "Nobody would believe me anyway!" She giggled.

"Thank you!" He breathed more easily, gave her a two finger salute and a smile, and came out of the store. He ran back to the small alley to feed Barkk quickly and head home.

"Why does everyone know who you are?" asked Barkk, as she chewed on her treat.

God, it smelled horrible. He was normally able to camouflage the reek of camembert by wearing extra cologne, but how on Earth was he going to hide this stench? Adrien sighed as he said it, "I'm a model and my face is plastered on billboards all over Paris."

Barkk kept munching on her smelly treat. "Nice."

"Not really." He sighed. "Especially in situations like this. My father is... how to put it… very _protective_. If he finds out about what happened tonight… I will be screwed."

oOo

The morning alarm went off way too early for Adrien's taste. He groaned and hastily scanned with his hand the space on the mattress where he usually put his phone, and fumbled with it until he managed to hit the snooze button.

"Another five minutes…" he muttered in between yawns, until he felt a sharp pain coming from the side of his hand. "OUCH!" He sat up in bed and held his hand tightly with the other one, to soothe the pain. Barkk was looking at him, raising one eyebrow in amusement.

"Morning," she said chipperly.

"What was the nip for, this time?" He frowned, but she smiled brightly.

"To wake you up. I'm hungry again." Her lips curled into a cheeky grin.

Adrien sighed and moved to get out of bed. It was going to be a long day.

His day didn't get any better when he finally went downstairs, after having fed Barkk, taken a shower, got dressed, and having spent a long time hiding the bags under his eyes with a concealer and taming his bed hair. Nathalie was sitting at the breakfast table, her arms folded on her chest.

"Good morning, Adrien," she said coldly.

"Good morning, Nathalie." He sat down and tried to concentrate on scooping yoghurt on the top of a bowl of fruit and flaxseed.

Nathalie cleared her throat, forcing him to look at her. "Can you explain this, please?"

His heart raced in his chest when he took a glance at the picture she was showing him on her tablet. It was the picture of him and Janine, taken the previous night. Oh well, more exactly a few hours before. 'Look whom I stumped across on my way to the store!' she had written, and under that, she had put a few different tags, including #AdrienAgreste, #MeetingAdrienAgresteAt3am and #AdrienAgresteAskedForMoneyFromAFan.

_Merde_. He was in DEEP TROUBLE.

"Uh… I have no idea," he tried. "Must be photoshopped, Nath-" but the words died in his throat as she shot him a deadly glare.

"Don't lie, Adrien. I know they're your pyjamas. You've been wearing them on and off for the last few months," she hissed. "You better have a believable excuse, because two of the tags I'm reading raise quite a big concern in my mind, and I wouldn't want to be in your shoes when I show this post to your father."

Blood drained completely from Adrien's face. "NO! Please, Nathalie. I… had no idea but… I _sleepwalk_. I woke up when I bumped into her, on the road. I was so confused… didn't even know where I was. She told me how to get back home and gave me 20 euro to buy me a snack. I didn't ask for it… I just said that I was hungry!"

Nathalie raised an eyebrow and brought a hand to her chin as he continued, looking at her sheepishly, "When I came back home my bodyguard was sleeping near my door. I don't even think he realised I went missing."

"Okay," she stated. "This sounds more likely. I'm not impressed, Adrien, but I want to believe you. I will contact this girl and offer her some money to take the picture down. Also, I will make sure that your bodyguard understands the importance of staying awake while guarding your door at night and will arrange for you to visit a doctor to discuss your sleepwalking issue. We will talk about it when you come back from school."

That said, Nathalie stood up and walked out of the room. Barkk came out from the inside pocket of his shirt, stuck her tongue out at the direction where Nathalie went and growled loudly. "What a nasty bitch!" she hissed.

Adrien sighed in relief. "I'm used to it, Barkk. Come back here, come on. I need to go upstairs and fetch my bag, or I'll be late for school." He waited for the brown kwami to return to her place inside the pocket of his shirt and walked hastily upstairs. "Being late would be the cherry on the cake!" he muttered.

oOo

Adrien wasn't surprised when he heard the sound of the akuma alert as the sedan was driving towards his school. Go figure. Hawkmoth couldn't give them a couple of days of break, could he? He really didn't want to deal with an akuma now.

"Premonition," whispered Barkk into his ear. Adrien looked at the little kwami in puzzlement. "That's what you say to release your power. It unseals the third eye, and you can see your opponent's next move as many times as you want during the next five minutes after activation."

Adrien cringed. "Sounds like the opposite of Second Chance!" Did his Lady hate him or something? Weren't 25913 times enough, he thought. But then, he kicked himself. She didn't know that it had been him that time.

"Yes, I suppose you could say that," whispered Barkk thoughtfully. "Now you may want to get out of this car and find a place to transform."

Adrien's cringe expression turned into a smirk. "You don't have to tell me what to do, Barkk. I know!" He looked around. The sedan was practically motionless, as a huge queue had built up the second the akuma alert had come on. Gorilla was glaring at the road in front of him, looking extremely bored and unhappy.

"I'll walk from here, if that's okay," said Adrien out loud, trying to open the car's door, which was still locked. Gorilla grunted a negative response. "Oh come on… look at the traffic. I will be late if you keep driving me. I can't afford any more late notes!"

Gorilla sighed and unlocked the car, and this time, the door opened. He thanked his bodyguard, went out of the car and closed the door, running to get round the corner, pretending to be on his way to school. In reality, as soon as he went round the corner, he ducked into the closest side alley and took the Dog Miraculous from inside his bag. He had decided to keep the Miraculous in his bag rather than on his person. It was too easily recognisable; if someone had taken a picture of him wearing it, maybe his Lady would have seen it and discovered his identity.

"Barkk, run forward!" he whispered after donning the collar. The now familiar flash of gold light surrounded him, transforming him into the dog superhero. Bugger. He still hadn't thought of a name! He heard an explosion coming from near the school and sighed. He would need to think about one on the spot. With a crack of his whip, he jumped off.

And… he landed on his derrière. Again. He looked around and luckily, nobody was in sight. He breathed a sigh of relief and glared at his whip, wishing that it was easier to maneuver it. He cracked it again and let himself be thrown along with it, but he missed his baton terribly. Not as much as he missed Plagg, but it was certainly close.

Next thing he knew, he saw a flash of black and found himself wrapped around a light pole. And he wasn't alone. He smiled sheepishly at Lady Noire, who had also got tangled with him.

"Hi, Chaton," she said, her eyebrows furrowed into a frown behind her black cat mask.

"M'lady." He smiled nervously again. "We seem to be _leashed_ together a bit more than usual…"

Lady Noire shot him an annoyed glare. "Aren't we now… can you release us, please? We have work to do!"

As soon as he released them and they fell back on the ground in a crouched position, she stood and picked at something inside a little pocket he hadn't noticed when they'd swapped kwamis against Reflekta, and threw it to him. He caught it instinctively and looked at the earrings in his hands in disbelief.

"What…?" he asked.

"I can't unify Tikki and Plagg, Chaton. And after a _long_ discussion with Plagg, we established that he had no intention of unifying with Barkk. So… there you go, you're Mr. Bug for the fight. You will give me the earrings back after you purify the akuma. Oh and by the way," she looked pointedly at something on his chest and sniggered. "That's a nice tag… 'LB'? Am I your _owner_ now, Minou?"

He gave her a flirty look. "Didn't you know that, M'lady? You'll always be the owner of my heart…" He moved his face closer to her and smiled, trying to embarrass her a little bit, but she shot a devious look at him instead.

"What's the look for?" he inquired, feeling suddenly worried.

"It's probably better if you get my yoyo instead than the whip, Chaton. At least, you won't risk falling on your bum again. It wouldn't be a nice move, especially in front of the akuma!" She wiggled her eyebrows and smiled cunningly.

His face felt suddenly very warm.

_Merde_. He'd been caught.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Author's Note:**
> 
> **Here I am with chapter 2. Hope you had a good laugh. And yes, this is only the start!**
> 
> **Thank you so much for all your comments, kudos and bookmarks. I'm really happy that even this idea is intriguing all of you! And I'm especially happy that fictionalinfinity liked the story :) Please comment more. I'd love to know what you thought about this chapter ^^ Type on that review screen and hit the button :) Doesn't cost anything ;)**
> 
> **See you again in a couple of days for chapter 3!**


	3. Briber

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betas: Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Speckleflower, anonymousfriend27, liminal . shadow, Khanofallorcs
> 
> Big thanks to: Genxha and Khanofallorcs for all their great help!
> 
> Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

###  **Chapter 3 - Briber**

“Barkk, Tikki, Unify!” called Adrien as he put the earrings on. He watched as a flash of red light wrapped around him and he saw the brown of his costume change into a polka dotted red. His whip had also disappeared, its place taken by the yoyo. 

He noticed Lady Noire’s amused expression. “What? Do I look completely hideous?” 

“Not at all,” she said, her amused expression turning into a smile. “I keep thinking of you falling on your bum. You’re normally more adaptable than that.” She giggled.

Adrien wasn’t impressed. “My bum is very sore because of your little experiment, M’lady. Hope you will have a good explanation for it.” He gave her a curt look. “And for taking Plagg away from me without warning.”

“So sorry, Chaton.” She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a soft look. “Maybe I should have told you, and I do apologise for not having done it. But it will make sense eventually, you will see. Is Barkk that bad to live with?”

Adrien put his hands up. “Uh, no, it’s not that!” he started. “Just… I have a different rapport with Plagg, he’s my friend you know.” Then he leaned closer to Lady Noire and added, “And besides, Barkk loves stinky beef sticks. The stench is worse than the smell of Camembert!”

Lady Noire laughed. “Sorry to make you stink. Won’t be for long, I promise! You will get Plagg back very soon!” Then she gave him a serious look. “But enough chatting. Let’s go back to business!” He nodded and they both jumped off, following the trail of explosions to find the akuma.

“THERE WAS NO REASON FOR ASKING ME TO TAKE THAT PICTURE DOWN!” 

They both landed at the same time in a crouched position and stood up, looking around to find the source of the voice. And that’s when they saw her. She had long purple hair combed into a ponytail and wore a long purple tunic that looked like a banknote. Her eyes were flashing red. 

“What you’re saying doesn’t make  _ cents _ , sweetheart! A  _ penny  _ for your thoughts!” 

Adrien smirked as he heard Lady Noire’s remark. “Did I hear a pun or two there, M’lady?”

“You heard  _ purr- _ fectly well, Minou. Or should I say Toutou(1)?” Lady Noire threw her long braid behind her and winked at him. “Can’t take the role on without taking it seriously!” 

God, he loved her even more when she acted flirty! But he couldn’t find the time for a pun to reply with, because something hit him really hard and he lost his balance, falling on the ground. 

“OUCH!” he muttered as he held his left arm tight to soothe the pain and started looking around. A strange figure all wrapped up into a giant sized 500 euro banknote charged him again. 

He picked up the yoyo and put himself in a defensive pose, but Lady Noire shielded him and used her baton to counteract the person’s moves, until she gave her opponent a stronger hit and the person fell on the ground. The banknote wrapping around them disappeared and a very confused man was left behind. 

“Is that all you’ve got, banknote woman?” Adrien smirked as he looked back at the akuma. 

She smirked back at him. “You would love that, wouldn’t you? And it’s Briber, _Chien galeux_ (2). I was expecting Ladybug and Chat Noir and instead I got a Black _Chatte_ (3) and a Polka-Dotted Clifford...” 

“HOW DARE YOU…” Adrien roared. “That’s no way to address a Lady!” He swung the yoyo across and was going to jump and hit Briber, when Lady Noire again put herself between him and the akuma. “What are you doing, M’lady?”

“I can defend myself, and you,  _ mon Loulou _ (4). You’re the Bug today… or should I say the  _ DoggyBug _ ?” She smirked. “Allow  _ me  _ to  _ purr _ -tect  _ you  _ for once!” She winked at him. “You concentrate on figuring out all she can do, before she takes another ace out of her sleeve and beats us!”

Adrien felt blood rushing to his face. His Lady was trying to protect…  _ him _ ? And she was punning so much… he felt like he was in heaven. 

“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself,  _ Sac à puces _ (5)? Letting your  _ Chatte  _ protect you?” The Akuma smirked as Adrien’s blood started to boil. She wasn’t going to get away with calling his Lady that. But suddenly, Briber picked up a purple phone from what looked like a side pocket of her costume and seemed to be placing a call. A man on the other side of the road from them picked up his phone and as he answered the call, a giant 500 euro banknote came out of the screen and wrapped around him. 

The man threw himself screaming towards him and Lady Noire, and Lady Noire moved her baton in defensive position and started charging at him. The Akuma had jumped at the top of a wall and was watching the battle with a big smirk on her face. “What is it,  _ Chatte  _ Noire? You seem to be in difficulty against my banknote puppet! Give me your Miraculous and I’ll let you and your  _ Hot-dog _ go!”

Lady Noire shot her a cunning look, gave a harder strike with her baton and hit the banknote puppet hard, releasing the person trapped inside. “Aren’t you sick and tired of doing Hawkmoth’s chores? Can he not do his own  _ money laundering _ ?” she said with a smirk. But her amused expression died on her face when she noticed Briber using her phone again.

“Watch out!” called Adrien, just in time for allowing her to turn around and use the baton to shield herself as a new puppet attacked her from behind.

She looked at him with a frown. “Hey,  _ Toutou _ , try to think quickly if  _ paw _ -sible, it’s not a walk in the park here!”

“I  _ am  _ thinking,” he replied. And he was indeed thinking. He jumped on a rooftop and hid behind a chimney to get a better overall look at the scene. The battle seemed to have a very recurrent pattern. Every time that Lady Noire beat one of her puppets, Briber was picking her phone up and acting like dialling a number… and a new puppet would come out. He barely registered Lady Noire jumping next to him and groaning.

“Are you looking for clues?” she asked breathlessly. “Because I think I can give you a couple of  _ pointers _ .” Another pun? He was proud of her!

“I think the akuma is in her phone,” he whispered. “She seems only able to create one puppet at a time.”

“Yes, I had come to the same  _ coin-clusion _ .” He shuddered and she laughed. “Are my puns distracting you enough,  _ mon Toutou d’amour  _ (6)?” She gave him a wink and blew him a kiss. “That’s what I call a  _ pay _ -back!”

_Huh? Toutou… d’amour? What…_ “Paw-don me?” he asked, blood rushing to his face. Yes, she said she was ‘role-reversing’... but even if his head knew that, his heart couldn’t stop racing. Lady Noire’s gaze locked into his and her face came really closer to his own. It was as if she was scanning his very being and searching for something, although he was unsure what could that be. 

She cupped a clawed hand on his cheek and gave him a soft look. “I told you that I didn’t really hate your puns, just your bad timing!”

“I…” he started, but with the most amazing bad timing, the chimney they were hiding behind suddenly exploded. When they looked at their side, a banknote puppet was facing them.  _ Shoot. _ So the puppet could also jump this high. There was no hiding from it!

Lady Noire charged the puppet with a loud roar. “Talking about  _ pointers _ , mon Toutou… it would be a good time for that Lucky Charm!”

Oh yes. He’d nearly forgotten about it! As Lady Noire charged again the banknote puppet in front of him, he raised a hand and called, “Lucky Charm!” He was extremely surprised to catch a big, blown up, polaroid version of a picture he knew too well.

“Ja… Janine?” He muttered, eying Briber in complete and utter shock. Of course! He should have made the connection. Nathalie was going to ring her to offer her  _ money _ . And what had she shouted when they had got there? There was no reason for taking the picture down? He suddenly felt a pang of guilt knotting his insides. He knew that he had asked her not to put the picture online, but… she was only a fan, after all. She wouldn’t have known the amount of trouble she would put him in for ignoring his plea. No, it was  _ his  _ fault she had got so upset, and they had found themselves in this messy situation. Had he thought his night grocery shopping a bit more thoroughly, she wouldn’t have had any reason for getting upset. He promised to himself to apologise profusely with Janine when he went back to being Adrien again.

Lady Noire landed next to him the second he said the name. She gave him a curt look. “Are you  _ kitten  _ me? You  _ meaw  _ her?” Adrien followed her gaze going from his face to the picture in his hands. Now, she suddenly looked amused, but he could see her eyes go wide when she took a better look at the picture. He tried to look at it as well, to see what had surprised her (beside the obvious Ladybug themed pyjamas and slippers, but he supposed that was more what had amused her). But yet another puppet hit the space between them, and they both jumped in opposite directions, only to then jump back next to each other. 

“I’ll use this to distract her,  _ ma Minette _ (7),” he whispered. “You Cataclysm the phone wires over there.”

“Gotcha! Without the wires…” She smirked in approval and his heart beamed with pride. “She can’t create a new puppet! Well thought, Toutou!” she purred, and ducked another hit from the puppet.

He beamed again. “What can I say… I’m just very good at finance. Even my bank says my balance is outstanding!”

“Yes, you’re  _ paw-some _ .” She smirked. “You should be on the cover of  _ Vanity Fur _ !” That said, Lady Noire jumped on, hitting the puppet and teasing it to follow her. But from the corner of his eye, Adrien noticed that Briber, who had just lost the butterfly symbol on her face and had by the looks of it just finished arguing with Hawkmoth, was calling again. 

_ Oh no! _ She could create more than one puppet at the same time! Holding the picture under his armpit, he jumped with his yoyo towards the new puppet that the akuma had created and wrapped it with the yoyo’s thread, making it fall to the ground and releasing the person trapped into it. But as soon as he released the yoyo, another puppet appeared at his back, and he had to jump on a really high rooftop to avoid it. 

“Help!” he heard someone scream and turned around hastily, only to see, to his horror, that the puppet he had just avoided had grabbed hold of Alya, who was holding her phone like a camera. Where did Alya come from? Why did she always have to put herself in danger?

_ Shoot.  _ “I should have given you more  _ credit _ !” he growled and charged the puppet with his yoyo, managing to free the person, and Alya at the same time. “Go and hide!” he ordered Alya, who for once, immediately obliged. 

The puppets seemed to be coming from all sides. He found himself blocking the hit of one of them, while another tried to grab him from behind, and he had to jump to avoid it. It was so unpredictable that he didn’t know where to look, or what to do. 

Suddenly, the image of Barkk talking to him about her power popped into his mind. Of course! How could he have forgotten about that?

“Premonition!” he shouted. The felt a really odd sensation on his forehead and suddenly, he saw a flash in front of his eyes and saw a man that he could see just a few steps away from him, in an odd feeling of double view, picking up his phone to take a call. 

“Don’t take the call!” he ordered and hastily knocked with his yoyo the phone from his hand, smashing it to the ground. The man’s eyes grew wide. “Sorry sir, I can’t risk more puppets!” 

Another flash. He felt the tag on his collar starting to move. Probably when it had gone all the way around his neck, his transformation would drop.  _ Concentrate, Adrien! _ A woman on the opposite side of the road. His yoyo zipped and knocked off even that phone. Another flash. A young girl picking up her phone a couple of metres away. Again, another phone smashed. 

He couldn’t continue doing it, he had to think of something. He eyed Lady Noire; she was still trapped under the puppet’s grip, and looked as if she couldn’t breathe. He was going to charge that puppet to free his Lady, when he got a further flash. 

Kagami in her sedan. 

_ MERDE! Not her!  _ He was already struggling with poorly skilled people being turned into puppets. He shuddered at the thought of what Kagami could do if she got trapped. He used his yoyo to jump across and landed in front of her car, signaling ‘no’ to her with ample gestures, his Lucky Charm firmly held in his right hand. She put her phone down and lowered her car’s window. “Whatever you do, whomever’s number it shows, DO NOT PICK UP THAT CALL!”

Kagami smiled. “As you want,  _ Inu-san _ (8)!” She picked up her phone from the seat next to her and dropped it out of the sedan. She didn’t even seem preoccupied seeing it smashing on the tarmac.

“Thank you!” He gave her a two finger salute and jumped off, as his earrings beeped for the first time. With another couple of jumps and zips of his yoyo, he landed at the back of the puppet that held Lady Noire and quickly wrapped it with the yoyo’s wire, freeing the person and also Lady Noire. 

She started coughing. “About time! What took you so long?”

“ _ Paw-don _ me, M’lady, I’ve been going through a  _ rough pooch _ !” He bowed theathically. “Please  _ fur- _ give me!”

Lady Noire face palmed. “Oh… please stop  _ hounding  _ me!” she muttered. Another beep from his earrings.

A flash. A puppet charging him at his back. He saw Lady Noire’s eyes grow wide as she shouted, “Watch out!” and charged behind him. 

That was enough, he had to take care of the akuma once and for all! He remembered of the photo that he still held under his armpit and used his free hand to yoyo himself towards Briber. He threw the picture at her and she grabbed it in an automatic gesture. She looked at it, her brows furrowing into a puzzled frown.

“Is that what you were looking for?” He landed in front of the banknote dressed akuma. 

“How did you get this picture, _ Pound Dog _ ? I had to take it down from Instagram! The woman wanted me to delete it from my phone as well!” The akuma’s voice cracked. Despite the insult shot at him, Adrien still felt his guilt knotting his insides. Poor girl, he had really messed up last night. 

“Who said you had to delete the picture from your phone?” he asked. 

The akuma’s eyes filled with tears. “That woman. She offered me 500 euros to do it. When I refused, she said Gabriel Agreste was going to unleash his lawyers against me! It was only a funny post. I should have listened to Adrien and refrained from posting it!”

“CATACLYSM!” He heard his Lady’s voice scream. Both he and the akuma turned at the same time and watched the phone wires near the road burn into powder. A red light appeared at the top of Briber’s phone. Another beep came out of his earrings.

“No signal!” Briber nearly choked in her whisper. She fell on her knees and cupped her hands over her mouth as Lady Noire landed in a crouched position near him. 

“That was _paw-sitively_ _paw-_ some, M’lady. _Howl_ I ever do without you?” he said softly. 

Lady Noire winked and kicked the phone from Briber’s hands. The gadget smashed on the ground and went into a thousand pieces, releasing the black butterfly. A flash of purple wrapped around Briber, revealing a very confused Janine. “Oh my God, have I been akumatised?” she whispered.

Adrien nodded to her, but then smirked looking at the insect flying away. It was  _ his  _ moment now. Even if he’d done it once already, he was dying to do it again! “No more evil doing for you, little akuma!” He grabbed the dark insect into his yoyo. “Time to de-evilise!” he shouted, and released it purified. “Bye-bye little butterfly!” He smiled, looking at the white being flying away, now harmless. 

But as he made to throw the Lucky Charm in the air, a hand stopped him in his tracks. “Wait a second,” inquired Alya, who had chosen just that moment to come out of her hiding place and was now holding his hand. “What is this story about a picture with Adrien? Is she talking about the Adrien I know?” She looked at him inquisitively and Adrien couldn’t avoid blushing. He hoped that his mask was going to hide it enough for Alya and his Lady not to notice it. 

“I met Adrien Agreste last night, going to the convenience store. He was wearing Ladybug pyjamas and slippers and told me he was sleepwalking.” Janine sighed as Alya grabbed his hand and turned it around to get a good look at the picture. Her mischievous grin made Adrien feel sweaty. He could see the wheels turning in her brain. He was  _ so _ going to be in trouble at school today, she was never going to let him off easily! 

Hastily, he threw the picture in the air and shouted, “Miraculous Mr… DoggyBug!” earning sniggers from both Alya and Lady Noire. The swarm of little ladybugs flew around, bringing Paris back to the way it was before the akuma’s attack. He saw that even Janine’s phone had come back in one piece, and he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that everybody else’s phone was going to be repaired too. 

Alya sniggered again and then continued Janine’s sentence, “So… you put it online and his father’s assistant rang you asking you to take it down and offered you money...” 

The ex-akuma nodded. “She offered me 500 euros, but I refused. I mean… no amount of money is comparable to the memory of meeting my beloved Adrien!” She sighed dreamily. “But the woman told me to take it down from Instagram, and that she wanted to see my phone this afternoon and she wanted the picture completely deleted from my device as well, or else Gabriel Agreste would sue me. I was so upset! It was the best moment of my life, meeting Adrien last night. I didn’t want to cancel it and delete the memory of it from the world!”

He felt so small - he really hated the thought that he had caused again someone to be akumatised. Of course it had been the best moment of her life. Of course she was upset. What an idiot he had been. 

“Look,” said Alya, “why don’t you send me the picture?” Alarm bells started ringing in Adrien’s head as she said so, but Lady Noire looked ecstatic. 

“Such a good idea, Alya!” she said, as her ring beeped. Then she looked at Janine and kneeled down briefly in front of her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Alya is the owner of the Ladyblog. She can help you.”

“Yes! This is my email. Send me the picture and your address, and I can get it blown up and printed for you. Then, I can ask  _ Adrien  _ to come to your house and give it to you.” Adrien liked her cunning smirk even less, but he had to admit it, her idea was great! This way Janine could delete the photo from her phone, Nathalie would be satisfied, and  _ he  _ would have a way to tell Janine that he was sorry. 

“How… How can you do that? I mean… it would be fantastic! Seeing Adrien again, it would be the dream of my life. My sisters would be able to meet him and all… are you a magician or something?” Janine looked overexcited, but with the right emotions this time. 

“I have my sources,” said Alya with a wink. Janine smiled at her and walked away, waving goodbye and jumping around. Alya waved back and then looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “Chat Noir… or… I don’t know what you are called now. What happened to your tag? I saw it at the middle of your neck when I started filming.”

A louder beep out of his earrings resounded on the road and the Ladybug transformation wore off in a blink of pink. He saw the panic in Alya’s eyes, immediately followed by a surprised look when she noticed that he was still protected by the dog transformation. 

“I used the dog power during the fight. I think the tag is on the collar, somewhere near my right shoulder, or at least that’s where I can feel it.” He pointed at where he felt the tag was and then, he picked up his whip and cracked it on the ground where nobody was standing, just for drama. “And by the way… it’s  _ Chien Marron _ . Lady Noire here is trying a little… experiment. Don’t know what it en- _ tails _ .” He took off the earrings and threw them at Lady Noire, who caught them and stored them away in her side pocket. Her ring beeped again. “There you go, M’lady!” 

He offered his fist, putting it in the centre between Lady Noire and Alya. “Pound it?” He offered. After all, Alya had just been really helpful in consoling the akuma victim. He saw Alya’s eyes gleam with joy and Lady Noire smile softly at him. They both bumped fists with him. “Pound it!”

Then, he felt the tag on his neck getting dangerously close to the end of its trip. “Now if you don’t mind, ladies, I would love to hang around  _ fur _ -ever, but my  _ leash  _ is getting short. Please  _ fur _ -give me!” And with a two fingered salute, he cracked his whip around a lamp post and flew away, praying to every saint in heaven not to fall on his bum again.

* * *

Notes:

  1. Toutou = Doggy
  2. Chien galeux = Dirty dog
  3. Chatte = means Female cat, but it also means “Prostitute” (to not use bad language, but I know you know what I mean)
  4. Mon Loulou = a bit like Chaton, it means "puppy" (literally, it means a Pomeranian dog as far as I read), but it’s used to address a boyfriend in France
  5. Sac à puces = fleabag
  6. Mon toutou d’amour = my beloved doggy (in a flirty way)
  7. Ma Minette = female version of mon Minou, my kitty. 
  8. Inu-san = -san is a respectful way to call a person in Japanese. Inu means dog, so it’s a respectful way to call a dog-themed superhero ;)



  
Special thank you to  [ Khanofallorcs ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khanofallorcs) from the Miraculous Fanworks Discord server for all the great help and for informing me of  [ an interesting article ](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/euros-500-bin-ladens.html) about the 500 euro banknote and how the central european bank had to get rid of it because it was used by terrorists! 

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Here I am with chapter 3. Did you like the akuma fight? I must admit I was very nervous while writing it, because it was the very first time I wrote a fight and didn't know whether I was going to be able to pull it off. Hopefully I did!**

**Now… the next chapter will be a bit difficult for Adrien. Not that the last three haven't been but… you'll know what I mean when you get to read it! See you mid next week! Again, thank you for all the kudos and bookmarks! And to those who wrote a comment and brightened my day... DOUBLE thank you. Love you all so much! Please let me know what you think of this chapter!**

**See you in a couple of days for more!**


	4. (Mis)fortune Reading

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betas: Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Speckleflower, anonymousfriend27, liminal . shadow, Khanofallorcs  
> Big thanks to: Genxha and Khanofallorcs for all their great help!  
> Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
> Written for: Fictionalinfinity

**Chapter 4 - (Mis)fortune telling**

“Cool off,” whispered Adrien as he ducked into a side alley. His transformation fell and immediately, Barkk flew in front of his nose and looked at him pointedly. 

“Where’s my food?” she inquired. Adrien sighed. She sounded just like Plagg. He put the Dog Miraculous back into his school bag and picked a stinky beef stick from the inside pocket of his shirt. He presented it to Barkk, who squealed in delight and picked it up, devouring it with a speed that could only be beaten by Plagg eating his cheese. “That’s better!” She smiled and rubbed her belly.

“Time to go, Barkk. The Akuma alert has been recalled, so if we don’t hurry, I’ll end up being late for school.” He opened his school bag and Barkk flew into it. Then, he fixed his bag on his shoulders and made to get out of the alley. But he barely managed to do so and start running towards his school when he heard a voice calling him from behind his back.

“Sunshine!” He didn’t need to turn around to know that it was Alya. He slowed down and she reached him, stopping to pant heavily, her hands resting on her thighs. “There’s no rush. Nino told me that the gate is still open to allow in students who may have been delayed by the attack.” She breathed heavily as she spoke. 

Adrien sighed in relief and they both started walking again towards the school. “That’s good news. My sedan was blocked in traffic and my bodyguard didn’t want to open the door before the fight had finished.”

“Must be your lucky day,” retorted Alya with a mischievous grin. 

Adrien frowned. “I wouldn’t say so… today’s been probably the unluckiest day I have had in years. And it’s not even 10 o’clock,” he said looking at the time on his phone. 

“Oh yes, I’ve been told all about it!” Alya smirked and messed with her phone as she walked up the steps to get to their school’s gate. She suddenly beamed and turned her phone around, showing him a picture he already knew too well. “Nice pyjamas, by the way. And the slippers… you need to tell me where you got them!”

Adrien faked surprise, as he felt blood rushing to his face. Janine had been quick in sending the picture to Alya. “Uh… how did you get that picture?” 

“A journalist never discloses her sources,” Alya said with a cunning snigger.

Adrien pouted. “Come on, Alya… please don’t post that picture on the Ladyblog. Nathalie wasn’t impressed about it this morning.”

“Oh believe me, I know she wasn’t impressed… The girl who was akumatised gave it to me. I happened to get… caught in the middle of the fight,” Alya admitted. 

Adrien wanted to inquire a bit more, but the words died in his mouth when he heard someone say from his left, “What picture are we talking about? Can I see?” He turned just in time to see a smiling Marinette go past him and grab Alya’s phone, look at it and snigger. 

Marinette sniggering? That was new. He watched as Marinette looked at the picture intently, moving her fingers on it in a gesture that surely meant that she was blowing it up. Her eyebrows furrowed into a frown, her tongue stuck slightly out of her mouth in concentration. Suddenly, her expression cleared up and she glanced at him, a small smile curling her lips.

“Good morning, Adrien,” she said softly and gave the phone back to Alya. What? No stuttering? What was going on that morning? “Those are nice pyjamas!” she finished. 

“And the slippers? Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the slippers?” Alya continued. Alya would be the end of him, honest. 

“You must be a great fan of Ladybug.” Marinette moved a finger down his chest and locked her gaze into his. Wha..? Was he having a dream or something? Had aliens abducted Marinette? His friend had never behaved like that with him!

“Y-yeah… I am…” he muttered. “Kind of have a sort of… shrine…” he added faintly, but a quick glance at Marinette showed him that she’d heard him. Was it very warm that day, or was it only him?

She sighed. “I suppose it makes sense.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m more of a Chat Noir fan myself… but I won’t hold it against you.” She winked at him.  _ Winked _ . Seriously? 

And… she was still… a fan of Chat Noir? Even after the Weredad incident? His face felt warmer.

“What were you doing on the road wearing your pyjamas and slippers, by the way?” inquired Marinette. 

And… that’s when he felt the blood rushing completely to his face. “Uh…” he said, finally finding the ability to move. He started climbing the steps to the school’s gate. “I… it’s a long story.” He sighed. 

“Looking forward to hearing it…” Alya smirked. They walked through the school gate, but Adrien knew perfectly well that the morning lesson today was in Miss Bustier’s classroom, so he wouldn’t get away with not giving Alya every little detail of why Janine had ended up with that picture. 

He decided to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. He looked sternly at Alya and repeated the lie that had helped him twice in the last few hours. “Apparently... I sleepwalk. I woke up bumping into this girl and she happened to be my fan and told me how to get home, not before taking a selfie with me. She told me she wouldn’t put it online, but she did, and this morning, Nathalie wasn’t impressed. She said she would ring her to ask her to take the picture down.”

“Yes,” confirmed Alya, thankfully. “That’s what Janine said too. Nathalie offered her 500 euros to delete the picture from Instagram AND from her phone, or else your father would unleash his lawyers against her.” Adrien heard Marinette gasp as they entered the locker room. “She got so upset over it that she got herself akumatised.'' Her words were like blades in his soul. He still couldn’t believe that he had caused someone to be akumatised _again_. Alya then waved towards the other side of the locker room. “Hey, Nino!” 

Nino approached the small group. “‘Sup, dudette?” he said and gave a soft kiss to Alya’s forehead. 

“Morning, honey,” she said with a bright smile. “I was explaining to Marinette what I told you earlier by the message. Sunshine here just said that he sleepwalks.”

Nino looked at him. He couldn’t see any judgement in his eyes and that by itself made him sigh in relief. “I didn’t know that, bro!”

“I didn’t know either,” Adrien said looking up, “until last night, when I woke up after bumping into that girl.” He sighed and looked at Nino pouting. “I’m having a really unlucky day.” Nino rested his hand on his left shoulder, and Adrien started feeling some of his embarrassment fading away--

\--Only to see it coming back with a vengeance as he felt someone picking up his right hand. It was Marinette. _Marinette..._ who was _softly_ _stroking_ his hand -- or rather, he noticed as a shiver ran down his spine, his naked ring finger -- a dreamy expression on her face. He had to resist the impulse to take his hand back, as it was the first time that he had seen Marinette be so _touchy_ with him. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Alya had a bright smile on her face and so did Nino. 

“Sorry you’re having a bad day, Adrien,” said Marinette as she held his hand palm up with one hand and kept stroking the palm softly with the other. “Maybe I could read your fortune… My aunt Li Jing is very good at this fine art, back in China. She taught me something about it.” Her gaze moved from his hand, which she was still stroking tenderly, to his eyes and he felt his cheeks catch fire. 

Was she  _ flirting  _ with him? His heart skipped a beat, as he would never, in his wildest dreams, have imagined Marinette being so upfront with him. He needed some time to accept this sudden change. “Uh… r-really?” he managed to say, eventually. 

“Well...” A cunning smile formed on Marinette’s lips. Marinette and a cunning smile. Another new thing. His heart couldn’t take all these new things in just one morning. “Fortune… Or a  _ lack  _ of it,” she added. Had her eyes always been that blue? And deep? They reminded him of something… or someone. He just couldn’t quite grasp what. Or whom. 

He gulped a couple of times and took his hand out of hers, suddenly remembering that he was standing in front of his locker like an idiot. He opened his locker and put his books inside, leaving in his bag only what he was needing for the morning, and then closed the locker’s door. Thankfully, that helped him gain back some composure. 

“And… what do you see?” He decided that the day couldn’t go any worse, so maybe it was better to try and be bold and go on with the flow. See what happened. He firmly offered his hand back to her, but the  _ other  _ one this time. 

She gave him a devious look and reached out to pick up his right hand, again. “First of all I notice that you’re not wearing your usual ring,” she pointed out. He felt all the blood draining from his face. Shoot. He knew that she would have noticed it! “What happened to it?”

“Uh… ah… I… I’m g-getting it cleaned,” he said breathlessly and smiled nervously after thinking quickly, his heart racing in his chest. “A-anything else you c-can see?” he found the courage to say.

Marinette picked up his hand and gave it a good look. Was she really able to read something from it? She had never mentioned this skill before! “I see that… there has been a  _ shift of power _ in your life.” She glanced quickly at his face as she continued, “But be reassured, as annoying as the shift can be, it will lead to  _ something greater _ coming.”

A… shift? In his life? Was she talking about Barkk and the Dog Miraculous? “What do you mean?” he asked, his heart pounding madly in his chest. He distinctly felt blood rushing to his face, his cheeks seemed to be on fire and he felt sweat on his forehead.

She smiled softly at his hand and then moved her gaze to lock on his. She seemed to be… almost amused. “Trust is the core of the power shift,” she added. “Trust it. And… maybe at the end… you’ll be rewarded with a little  _ luck _ .” She emphasised the last word and winked at him. The place felt suddenly very hot. 

oOo

“Ouch!” muttered Adrien, feeling the sharp pain spreading at the side of his right hand. He jerked his hand out of his bag and held its side firmly with the other.

“Dude! Are you ok?” Nino frowned at him. 

“Yeah, I’m okay, don’t worry, bro. I just caught my hand into some paper in my bag.” Adrien said, but he secretly growled. He moved his head closer to his bag, pretending to be looking for something. “Barkk! Will you stop nipping me? It’s  _ not _ funny!” he whispered. 

“I’ll stop when you stop smelling like that cheese addicted cat,” said Barkk and stuck her tongue out at him. Adrien snorted and took his tablet out of his bag, being careful not to put his hand too close to the dog kwami. 

Miss Bustier had to escort Rose to the nurse, due to a fall, and he wanted to re-read the passage from ‘Les Misérables’ that they were discussing the previous day. But suddenly, his attention was sucked by the conversation he could hear going on behind him.

“Marinette!” Alya said, with an almost shocked tone of voice. “You’re not wearing your earrings today.”

Marinette sighed. “No… I decided to give some breathing space to my earlobes. But it’s not a good idea, my ears feel naked!”

“I suppose so,” Alya said. “You’re too used to wearing them. I've never seen you without those earrings, ever, since our first day in school this year.”

He turned around to look at his friend. She had put her right hand over her mouth and looked a little uncomfortable. 

“What can I say… I really like those earrings!” she said.

“They are quite simple, but I do agree, they suit you.” Then Alya gasped and picked up Marinette’s hand, the one she had put over her mouth. “I have never seen this ring before! If it weren’t pink I would say it’s Adrien’s ring, it looks exactly the same. Is there something you two are not telling me?" She wiggled her eyebrows and winked.

Adrien’s heart started racing again, as he focused a stern look over Marinette’s hand, not failing to notice that Marinette had become as flustered as him, after Alya’s remark. He tried to get a good look at the ring, but he couldn’t see it clearly from where he was. He could only see that it was pink, but… it  _ did  _ look familiar. The wheels in his brain started turning. He wondered if the colour of the Cat Miraculous could change if it was worn by someone else. 

“Don’t be silly, Dudette,” said Nino. “It can’t possibly be Adrien’s ring. First of all he said he’s sent it to be cleaned. Second, it’s pink and Adrien's ring is silver. Third… Marinette’s fingers are much smaller than Adrien’s. How can she wear a boy’s ring? It would slip off her finger!"

Marinette smiled nervously. “It’s just… a present from Nonna Gina. She sent it for me from…  _ Brazil _ . She’s over there exploring the place!” 

Her answer seemed to satisfy Alya, but it didn’t satisfy him. He knew that Plagg’s ring could change size, because his Lady had worn it that very morning and even in her costume, it looked much smaller and fit her finger perfectly. He supposed that the Miraculous could change colour in camouflaged form, depending on who was wearing it… right? He needed to ask Barkk that question. How curious that on the day that his Lady became Lady Noire, Marinette wouldn’t wear her earrings and would be wearing a ring that looked exactly like the Cat Miraculous. Coincidence? He was seriously starting to doubt it. He tried to get a better look at the ring, but Marinette stubbornly put her hands on her knees, out of sight. In the end, he temporarily gave up. 

Miss Bustier returned to the class and resumed the lesson, so he couldn’t carry on with his mission of having a good look at the ring, but his head wasn’t focused on Miss Bustier’s lesson. He was still thinking about Marinette and her ring, when Nino elbowed him and woke him up from his  _ rêverie _ . “Dude?” 

“Uh.. yes?” Adrien blinked and looked at him.

“Miss Bustier asked you a question!” Adrien’s expression must have shown all his surprise, because Nino sighed and came closer to his ear to whisper, “Mention one social problem presented in ‘Les Misérables’...”

_ Oh. Right. Les Mis _ é _ rables. Sure… _ He looked at Miss Bustier, who was frowning at him and had folded her arms on her chest. 

“Are you with us, Adrien?” she asked calmly.

He gulped. “Yes, sorry… uh, one of the social problems… unfair treatment of women?” He smiled sheepishly. “I mean, mainly women of lower class, for example Fantine, who is sacked from her job because she’s looking after a child…”

Miss Bustier smiled and nodded in approval. “Thank you, Adrien. That is correct. Alix, could you give us another social problem presented in the book?” 

_ Phew. _ “Thank you, bro,” whispered Adrien after breathing a sigh of relief. 

“Don’t sweat it.” Nino frowned at him. “You’re very distracted today, dude. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, sorry… just a lot on my mind.” He couldn’t possibly tell Nino that he had been dealing with a God of Premonition who loved to bite his hands and enjoyed eating stinky beef sticks. And of course, the way Marinette had behaved with him that morning… and her earrings (or rather,  _ lack of _ earrings)... and her new ring… and he missed Plagg… okay, maybe he should stop thinking about it, he discussed with himself. As he thought that, he couldn't help but turn his head back, and glance quickly at Marinette, who seemed to be concentrating a lot on her tablet. 

Nino poked him again. “Does anything going through your head have something to do with our friend, Marinette?” Nino’s smile widened when Adrien felt blood rushing to his cheeks.

“Uh… no, why? It’s just… she was acting weird this morning, that’s all.” He felt that he was blushing even deeper under the scrutinising eyes of his best friend, but luckily, the bell for the end of the lesson rang. Adrien could just pick up his tablet and notebooks and put everything back into his bag, paying extra attention to see where Barkk was, to avoid any more nipping. 

He thought he had a little breathing room and was going to pick up his bag to rush out. For once, he welcomed the idea of his sedan waiting for him and his lonely meal at home where he could gather back his thoughts. 

But suddenly, he heard Chloé’s voice exclaim near his face, “What’s  _ this _ ?” He saw her picking up something from near his bag and when she stood up to look at it, Adrien’s heart stopped.

That was… the Dog Miraculous.  _ SHOOT!!  _

“That’s mine, Chloé, give it back, please!” He showed her his hand, hoping to get it back before anyone could have a look at it. 

“Is it? Adrikins… and there I was, thinking you had better taste than this.” She put her free hand on her chest theatrically. “It’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Look, Sabrina… such a simple silver chain isn’t really apt for someone like Adrien…” She kept moving it around in her hand and then she moved it to the next hand to show it to Sabrina who was getting out of her desk. 

Adrien felt all blood rushing out of his face. “Chloé, please give it back. It’s a...  _ prototype _ ... for Father’s new... jewellery line for men. It shouldn’t be out in the public eye…”

“You’re joking right, Adrikins? This piece of rubbish can’t be part of a jewellery line from ‘ _ Gabriel’ _ . Too simple.” She looked at Sabrina who had joined her and was looking at the Miraculous as well. “Just wait for my maman to see this line. She won’t approve. Silver is not fashionable this year!” 

He was going to stand up and get the chain out of Chloé’s hand when somebody snatched it before he even could think about it. “Can I have a look?”

Oh no.  _ Kim _ . That was getting out of hand. He could argue with Chloé and she would probably have given the Miraculous back without complaining, but… not him. 

“Kim, give it back!” He stood and tried to snatch it, but Kim towered over him and kept moving it smirking. 

“Finders keepers, Agreste. It’s a nice chain!” 

With the corner of his eye, Adrien could see Barkk peeking out of his school bag. _ Yes, Barkk, I know. You were right. I shouldn’t have put the Miraculous in my bag, I should have kept it on my person _ , he thought as he tried to catch the chain. He just hoped that Barkk wasn’t going to do anything stupid. 

“Kim, this isn’t funny!” This was Marinette. “That's not the way to behave in class. As class president I demand that you give me that chain! You should not steal from your classmates.” 

No! Not to Marinette,  _ please _ ! 

“But Marinette! It was on the floor near Adrien’s bag. It wasn’t in his bag. So technically I’m not stealing!” Kim kept moving the collar-shaped ‘necklace’ around, but he had suddenly lost his impertinent smirk. 

“It  _ is  _ stealing, since Adrien said it was his.Give it to me, Kim! You know that I can ask Ms. Mendeleiev to send you to the principal’s office when lessons start again, don’t you?” 

A quick glance at Marinette made Adrien’s heart stop. She was giving Kim one of the sternest looks he had ever seen on her, her arms folded on her chest. Then, she put a hand out and gestured to Kim to get closer. “I said  _ give it to me _ .” Shivers ran down Adrien’s spine. Her tone was cold and nearly solemn. 

Kim looked a bit taken aback as well. He gulped and smiled awkwardly, and then slammed the chain in Marinette’s hand, walking out of the classroom muttering something about it being unfair and Adrien getting preferential treatment. Adrien’s gaze followed Kim getting out of the classroom; everyone else was following him, including Chloé and Sabrina. He turned around to look at Marinette, but it didn’t make him feel any better. She looked furious, staring sternly and pointedly at the door where Kim had just gone out from. 

He gulped. “Thank you, Marinette,” he started to say, but he only managed to direct her furious glare back to him. Then her gaze softened and her lips curled in a small smile. 

“You should take better care of such valuable jewelry, Adrien,” she said as she handed the chain back to him. “I don’t think your  _ father  _ would be impressed if you lost it.” She locked her gaze into his, and stared at him with such intensity that he started having the nasty feeling that she meant something (or  _ someone _ ) entirely different. He gulped awkwardly. 

“Yes. Sorry.” The place felt incredibly hot all of sudden. He put the necklace on and quickly picked up his books, rushing to get out of the classroom and heading home.

* * *

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**Here’s chapter 4. Marinette’s plan is starting to unfold and she can’t believe her luck! She should know she’s lucky after all, she’s Ladybug! BUT she still can’t believe her luck. Adrien’s not stupid though. His embarrassment won’t last long, so get ready for the cat to start playing in the next chapters.**

**Again, thank you so much for the kudos and bookmarks. And for those who commented, thank you so much for making my day Please comment some more and let me know what you thought of this chapter. It took me a long time to get it right in my head!**

**See you in a couple of days for more!**


	5. Joining the dots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written by: JuliaFC
> 
> Betas: Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Speckleflower, anonymousfriend27, liminalshadow, Khanofallorcs
> 
> Big thanks to: Genxha and Khanofallorcs for all their great help!
> 
> Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
> 
> Written for: Fictionalinfinity

**Chapter 5 - Joining the dots**

"Wow, what was _that_ , girl!" Alya exclaimed right after Adrien left and gave her a slap on the shoulder. "I've never heard you talking to Adrien like that! I mean… no stutter? No tongue tie? No mixing words up? Who are you? Where did you put my Marinette? Seriously, I was going to comment earlier, but I was afraid to… I didn't want to break the magic! " Her joking tone of voice was matched by a beaming smile on her lips.

Nino nodded in approval. "Yeah, dudette, same for me. I couldn't believe my ears! And beforehand on the road. I could swear that my man was the one stuttering for once!"

Alya laughed. "Yeah… 'My aunt Li Jing is very good at this fine art'!" She mimicked her voice. "That was ace, girl, absolute ace!" She wiggled her eyebrows. "Just an excuse to hold Sunshine's hand, right?"

"Actually…" Marinette felt blood rushing to her face. A lot of things had happened in the last few hours and she still couldn't believe all the information she had just gathered. She hadn't expected her little experiment to go that well. She had the cat literally in the bag now. "I… decided to be a bit more… _confident_ with him and see what happens."

"That's my girl," approved Alya with a firm nod. "I'm pretty sure you nearly broke him." She giggled madly. "Who knows, maybe one of my ships will finally sail!" She sighed. "Or maybe both… you should have seen Ladybug today, or should I say Lady Noire? That's what Chat… I mean, Chien Marron, called her…"

"Chien Marron?" asked Nino, his mouth slightly open, a hint of surprise in his voice.

Alya nodded. "Yes, he was wearing some sort of collar, and he also wore Ladybug's earrings today. Apparently Ladybug is doing a little experiment, as he put it. I have so much information to write on the blog! I'll get started now at lunch time. The fight with the Akuma was amazing! That Dog Miraculous must have the coolest power!"

"So… what did Lady… Noire do today?" inquired Marinette. She couldn't help but get worried around Alya.

"Well…" Alya picked up her phone and messed with it, before turning it to show some pictures to Marinette. "You know how Chat Noir always flirts with her, puns and jokes?" Marinette nodded, so Alya continued, "Well… today Lady Noire was the one flirting the most. She was punning and joking worse than Chat Noir. Even _he_ was surprised, and that's saying something."

"Maybe she was… putting up an act?" Marinette smiled a cringe-smile. "Or maybe, what did you call him… Chien Marron?" Alya nodded as Marinette continued, "Maybe she prefers keeping her partner as a dog. Much easier to put him on a leash, or muzzle up his punny mouth…"

Alya smirked. "The thing is… she _wasn't_ muzzling up his punny mouth, as you say. In fact, she was punning almost more than him!" Suddenly, Alya's eyes grew wide as she continued, "Uh… what if… she decided to step down a little bit?"

"What do you mean?" Marinette frowned.

Alya slapped her fist against the palm of her other hand. "Sure! She may have decided to give more responsibilities to Chat Noir… or maybe let him lead for a while? That may be the reason why she gave him the earrings? Maybe she's tired of being the boss and wants to share the burden for a while."

 _Wouldn't that be nice_ , thought Marinette and sighed. But then she looked at Alya and said, "Don't know Alya… maybe you're looking too much into it. It doesn't sound a Ladybug-ish behaviour to be honest."

"Maybe…" Alya looked at her watch and widened her eyes. "By the way, I had better get going. Need to jot down an article about today's fight for the blog. See you after lunch!" That said, she stood and started walking down the steps, and then waited for her and Nino to follow before going out of the classroom.

oOo

Adrien had arrived home and now sat down in front of his lonely meal (boiled chicken breast with broccoli and carrots. Not even mashed potatoes. Ughh…), having just finished listening to Nathalie listing all the Very Important Activities™ he had to be involved with that afternoon. As he chewed listlessly on his chicken (and cut half of it into small pieces to feed Barkk, who had moved into his shirt's pocket), he saw his phone vibrating and pinging loudly. Nathalie walked out of the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts. _Or at least so she thought_ , mused Adrien.

When he looked at his phone, he saw that he had a message from Kagami and one from the group chat with his class that Max had insisted on creating, on WhatsApp. He decided to look at Kagami'ìs message first.

**Kagami: [Fencing class is cancelled today. Mr. D'Argencourt had a family emergency. Mother thought it was a good idea to let you know.]**

Oh, that was unusual. In all the years that he had attended his class, he could not remember Mr. D'Argencourt taking time off.

**Adrien: [Oh I see, thank you for telling me, Kagami. Fancy an ice cream after school? We can look for Andre's cart.]**

A few seconds passed by and Barkk came out of her hiding place in the inside pocket of his shirt and looked at the messages.

**Kagami: [Sorry, Adrien. I have other plans.]**

Oh well… he tried. He let out a loud sigh.

**Adrien: [That's ok, Kagami, don't worry. See you at the next fencing class!]**

"Who's the girl? She's very pretty!" Barkk asked, as the picture of Kagami flashed on the screen after he sent the last message.

"She's a good friend," he said softly. "I'm trying to get closer to her, to see where it will lead us to."

He sighed again, feeling a pang of disappointment at the thought of the missed opportunity to sneak out of the mansion and spend some time with her that afternoon. Then, he swiped his screen to read the message from the Whatsapp chat.

**Kim: [Hey, Agreste!]**

Kim. What did he want now?

**Adrien: [Hey, Kim…]**

**Kim: [Look… I wanted to say sorry about what I did earlier. I didn't mean to bully you or something, but I really liked that chain.]**

Adrien sighed. He was probably doing it because he didn't want Marinette to ask Ms Mendeleiev to send him to the principal's office.

**Adrien: [Don't sweat. It was my fault too, I should have worn it and not just put it in my bag.]**

**Kim: [That's okay then. Listen… could you let me know when the chain is going to be out? I would love to buy one.]**

**Nino: [Dude… I'm also interested. Really think it's cool. Would you inform me too?]**

**Ivan: [And me!]**

**Max: [I wouldn't mind, either]**

**Nathaniel: [*raises hand shyly*]**

**Adrien: [Okay, okay, I'll let you all know here in the chat. It's not going to be out for a while though.]**

**Kim: [I can wait]**

**Nino: [Me too!]**

**Adrien: [All right, all right… I will keep you informed.]**

**Nino: [Thanks, Bro!]**

**Adrien: [No problem!]**

He put his phone down and sighed loudly. He seriously hoped that his friends would forget about the chain soon.

"It's going to be fun to see how you get out of this pickle," Barkk said mockingly after reading the exchange.

Adrien sighed again. "No need to make fun of me. I had to say something."

"I know, I was there. Thankfully, the girl with the pigtails made you see the light and you're now wearing the collar. You should never have put it in your bag!"

Adrien couldn't prevent a deep blush forming on his face at the mere mention of Marinette. "Uh… yes," he said. "About that…"

"What?" asked the kwami.

"I was wondering… I think that Marinette, the girl with the pigtails, is... _Ladybug_."

Barkk opened her mouth, and her eyes widened a little. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes. I mean, no, I'm not 100 percent sure, probably more like 70 percent… I can only tell you that I have a really strong suspicion that Marinette is Ladybug. First, the ring on her finger… the same finger where Lady Noire had the Cat Miraculous this morning."

He glanced carefully at the door, as he knew it would open very soon. "Second, M'lady punned with me for all of the akuma fight; third, on the same day, Marinette blatantly flirted with me on my way to school; fourth... she was wearing a ring on the same finger as M'lady this morning and she wasn't wearing the earrings I saw on her earlobes from the first day I met her; fifth… she looked so… fierce when she faced Kim and got the Miraculous back for me. I can't believe she was the same girl who sat behind me all year. She was always so… distressed when she spoke to me until now." His gaze went to the ceiling as a beaming smile spread all over his face and lips and he sighed dreamily. "She's fantastic, Barkk. Creative, sweet, kind, always available to help everyone…"

"You really like her, huh?" The kwami was munching on a piece of chicken and staring at him intently. "I thought you said you had a girlfriend, and the girl I saw on your phone didn't have pigtails."

Adrien put his hands in front of him, in a defensive pose. "Ah no… I didn't say I have a girlfriend. I said that... I'm trying to be a bit more than a friend with a good friend of mine, to see where it would lead me to…"

Barkk frowned. "Yeah… which basically means that you have a girlfriend, right?"

"I never asked her to be my _girlfriend_!" Adrien retorted.

"Have you _explained_ that to her, or to yourself?" was Barkk curt reply. "I saw you sighing when you looked at her picture on your phone."

Adrien sighed. The truth was… no, he hadn't. But from the day she had tried to kiss him and he had refused to… Kagami had become more distant with him. Sure, they had shared an ice cream from André along with everyone else, but… he somehow knew that she had been disappointed.

"I was disappointed I couldn't escape from this prison, Barkk. I don't think she needs me to explain anything. She _knows_. She hasn't made any effort to see me in days and when I asked her a couple of times to hang out after fencing she said no. Even earlier I asked her to grab an ice cream and she refused. I… think she's avoiding me."

"Maybe she was just busy?" tried the kwami.

Adrien fell silent for a moment and only after thinking carefully about it he continued, "You don't know her. She's very stubborn and never hesitates. When she tried to kiss me and I refused, she told me that my hesitation was hurtful."

Barkk gave him a stern look and folded her paws on her chest. " _She…_ tried to kiss _you_? Let me understand something… okay, I may have been in that box for around 180 years, right? But as far as I know it's the boy who kisses the girl, not the other way round. And… Why did you refuse to kiss her? I thought you _liked_ her!"

"I didn't feel it was _right_ to kiss her." He returned the stern look this time and mirrored her pose, folding his own arms on his chest. "You're right. You've been in that box too long." Then he saw Barkk frowning and her ears dropped as she let out a loud whimper. "Uh… sorry Barkk, I didn't mean to offend you. It's not your fault. Things are a bit different nowadays!"

"You may think that they're different." Barkk pouted. "But I'm sure that any girl in the world would be extremely happy for the boy of her dreams to take the initiative!" She gave him a firm nod and frowned angrily. Then her gaze became all cunning. "If you don't feel like kissing _this_ girl, is there someone else you'd rather brush lips with? Maybe the girl with the pigtails?" She sniggered.

"Uh… how did we get to this kind of conversation, Barkk?" The implications of what the kwami said were enough to make him blush profusely.

Barkk's cunning smile widened. "Sass told me that you were in love with a girl; I thought it was this Kagami, but evidently not. You wouldn't refuse to kiss a girl you really like." She paused for a moment and kept staring at him. "At least… I have been alive for over 5000 years and had many holders… and none of them have ever refused to kiss a girl they love."

"Okay, look… the situation is complicated, right?" He gulped awkwardly. "You are right. I'm _not_ in love with Kagami. I love _Ladybug_. I've been in love with her since the day I met her. But…"

"Did you tell her?" she interrupted him.

"Of course I did. On many occasions… but… she rejected me. Every. Single. Time." He couldn't avoid feeling a sting in his eyes as he admitted it. "So… this girl, Kagami… She arrived and told me to change targets. She had previously said that she loved me, so I tried to see if it would work out with her but… it doesn't seem like it is..."

Barkk raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

Adrien sighed in defeat and looked down at the floor sheepishly. "Seriously."

"What kind of _doormat_ are you?" She flew in front of his nose and looked straight into his eyes.

"I'm _not_ a doormat!" he retorted, feeling the blood rushing to his cheeks again.

"What would you call yourself then? Do you prefer a 'self-destructive spineless idiot'?" Barkk raised an eyebrow once more as he glared at her. "I'm not surprised that you're the wielder of the Miraculous of Destruction. From what I understood, some girl you love so much that you used Second Chance to try and save her life 25,913 times - yes, Sass told me, don't look at me like that! - kept on rejecting you, but you kept on pursuing her, blindly, restlessly, allowing her to dig the blade deeper and deeper into your wound, for months and months. Am I wrong in this?" She waited for him to shake his head and kept looking at him with her eyebrow raised. He couldn't hold her gaze.

She sighed and continued, "Then, some _other_ girl you _don't_ really feel that you love, but maybe you just find slightly attractive (and at least I _hope_ you do) tells you to change targets. So… Only because she told you that she loved you, you decide to 'get closer' to her? And not only _to get closer_ to her… You're being self-destructive with her, too!"

"What do you mean?" His eyes widened at the kwami's words.

"You don't love her, you just said that. BUT… you're STILL pursuing her. Blindly again. Why?"

He again felt the blood rushing to his cheeks. "I… Father's company is dealing with her mother's company and both our parents want us to be together. She's the only one Father will allow me to spend some time with. We help each other escape from our parents' hold. Thanks to her, I have managed to have some freedom and that's important to me."

A loud growl escaped from Barkk's throat. Adrien paled and looked down again. "So you're using her?" she asked.

Adrien glared at her after hearing that. "No! I would never do that. We just help each other, it's a mutual thing. She hates being trapped as well!"

"And you're 100% sure that she also only considers you a friend and only uses you as a way to escape her mother?" she pointed out. "She wanted to kiss you, didn't she? She said that your hesitation was hurtful! Why would she have said that if she'd considered you as a friend and as an escape route from her mother? She evidently wants something more than that!"

"No… you're right," he eventually admitted, after a long period of silence. "But I still can't give her what she wants. I… I don't love her, Barkk. I can't create feelings that don't exist!"

"Thank you." She put a paw on her forehead and growled again. Then she locked her gaze into his once more. "Now, I have another question. Forget about the suspicions that you have just mentioned to me earlier. If this _Marinette_ would try to kiss you, what would you do? Be honest."

His heart started racing in his chest. He thought of it for some time, not knowing what to say. Because he really didn't know what to say. "She tried once, and I pushed back." He saw Barkk giving him a cringe look and facepalm. "I mean… I was pretending to be a statue and she started suddenly declaring her love to me as a statue and approached me trying to kiss me… I just panicked!"

He saw Barkk's cringe look became even more cringey as he continued, "I asked her twice if she liked me, or what she thought of me and in both cases she said that," he started counting with his fingers, "she had all those photos of me hanging on her wall in her room only because I'm a model and she loves fashion, she likes me but not in that way, but only in a human being way (whatever that means), I wasn't exactly a good friend… and when I asked her then what I was for her, she said I was a _toilet_." He looked up and then corrected himself, "I mean, no, she said that she needed to go to the toilet. But… it sounded like that at first."

"Was that before or after you pretended to be a statue?" the kwami asked.

"Before. After she said that, I decided that I wanted to play a prank on her to make her laugh and maybe open her up a little bit. That's why I pretended to be a statue. And she got so upset!" He recalled how upset and desperate Marinette had been that day and felt even more blood rushing to his cheeks.

"I'm not surprised!" was Barkk's curt reply.

"But then, in the car ride home I apologised and said that I shouldn't have made a prank like that, that even the girl I love doesn't like it when I joke. And she got even more upset!"

Barkk opened her eyes wide and face palmed again. "For the Mighty Creator! What has happened to men in the last 180 years?! Please tell me! Is this a joke?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, but Barkk glared at him even more.

"Adrien… how do I put this nicely? If this girl had _any_ feelings for you, what do you think she would have felt in hearing you say that you love _another girl_?"

SHOOT. He'd never thought of that.

"But she said that she wasn't interested in me!" Adrien felt like sweating, a painful knot starting to form in his throat.

"And of course you _believed_ her?" Adrien nodded and she glared at him. Then, she continued, "Can you clear another doubt for me? These paintings or pictures or whatever that she has in her room, and she told you that she has on her wall because she likes fashion… are they _all_ pictures of you modeling some clothes during a fashion show? Or in a magazine?"

Adrien closed his eyes trying to remember the pictures that he had seen when Jagged Stone had entered Marinette's bedroom and had assumed that he was her crush. "N...no… there were pictures that she took of me at school, some with me and our friends… there were some from magazines, but if I recall correctly, mostly they were pictures she or her friend Alya had taken of me."

"So, CLEARLY she doesn't have those pictures up only because she likes fashion, huh?" Barkk raised an eyebrow again and waited, as the weight of what she had just said started to sink in. She waited. And waited.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, she sighed and continued, "Now, think back at what you were talking about when we started this conversation, about your _Ladybug_. You were saying that she rejected you. Why?"

"She… said that she loves another boy."

Barkk put a paw on his nose and forced him to look at her. "Does she know that you are Chat Noir?"

Adrien shook his head. "No. She doesn't want to share identities, she thinks it's too dangerous. And as for the chance of her liking me… no chance, Barkk. I tried to win her over so many times in the last few months but… she's obviously not interested." He looked down to the floor in full defeat. "No. She's _definitely_ not interested in me. She loves someone else. She never even _acts_ like she likes me in any way."

Barkk put a paw on his mouth. "Are we talking about the same girl here, because I'm starting to get confused. You're talking about the girl who was using the Cat Miraculous today, right?" Adrien nodded. "Well… She _didn't_ look _that…_ disinterested in you, to be honest."

"Do you really think so, Barkk?" A big smile brightened Adrien's face.

"Absolutely. In fact, she looked as if she was all over you. Both when she wore the cat suit _and_ when she was _out of it_ …"

 _Uh?_ "Excuse me? What did you just say?"

Bark sighed loudly. "Don't tell me you didn't smell the stench of Gorgonzola cheese coming from her purse? You should have added this clue to the other ones you mentioned earlier!"

His heart skipped a beat. "I… uh… no…?"

Barkk shrugged. "Sorry. I forgot that the human nose isn't as sensitive as mine. My bad."

"Barkk… are you implying what I think you're implying? Because if you are, there's something that I need to ask you…" His heart was racing in his chest as he saw the dog kwami nod slightly. "Can a Miraculous change its camouflage colour depending on the holder that is using it?"

"Of course. It can change colour, shape, size… it's been made this way so it would be more difficult for villains to recognise the Miraculouses in camouflage form, and protect the holders. And yes, I'm implying exactly what you think I'm implying. And I will tell you even another thing. If your Ladybug has kept on rejecting you up to now, and if it's true that she didn't act in any way as if she was interested in you in the past, I am wondering… maybe… What if the cat is out of the bag? _Think about it!_ " She smiled at him as she continued, "Any more stupid questions?"

But the door opened and Nathalie came in, informing him that his lunch hour was over, and Barkk had to hide quickly in the pocket of his shirt. Shoot. He had barely eaten anything.

Not that he was hungry now. Not at all.

He felt a knot taking a strong hold of his stomach as he kept going through what Barkk had just told him. She did have a point and it all made so much sense! Maybe… maybe Marinette did like him a little bit? Or maybe more than a little bit? He blushed profusely at the mere thought. That would be so amazing by itself, even if Marinette didn't end up being his Lady! And if she was _really_ Ladybug… What if… that boy his Lady was always rejecting him for… was _him_? He would be in heaven!

He was a man on a mission now. He ought to find out! And he would. Oh yes. If Barkk was right and she had found out who he was and that was the reason for her change in behaviour… well, he could play that game too. Just wait and see.

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**Author's Note:**

**Here's chapter 4. So… Barkk has been a bit harsh on Adrien, but she's also helped him join the dots, and obviously Adrien is very grateful for that. And now it's HIS time to play. What do you think? Will Marinette keep sanity of mind now that the tables will turn? :) You will know in the next chapter, "The Cat found his Mouse…"**

**Again, thank you so much for the kudos and bookmarks. And for those who commented, thank you so much for making my day! Please review more and let me know what you think!**

**See you on Tuesday for chapter 6!**


	6. The Cat Found His Mouse...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written by: JuliaFC
> 
> Betas: Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Khanofallorcs
> 
> Big thanks to: Genxha and Khanofallorcs for all their great help!
> 
> Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
> 
> Written for: Fictionalinfinity

"How long are you carrying on with this stupid game, Pigtails?"

Marinette rolled her eyes as Plagg picked up a piece of Pecorino cheese from the plate she had brought up to her room and started nibbling at it quietly. "I don't like that nickname, Plagg. And it won't be too long now. Do you miss your Camembert so much?"

"It's not that. Pecorino and Gorgonzola are nice too, _Mistress_ ," he said, drawling the last word to give it emphasis. "I'm just worried for my kitten, that's all." That said, he scoffed the rest of the Pecorino cheese into his mouth.

"Can you not just call me, Marinette?" She sighed. "And why are you worried for Chat Noir? He has Barkk, and you saw it yourself, Barkk isn't useless, her power was actually extremely relevant today. I may look for a holder for her for future fights."

Plagg picked up another piece of Pecorino and flew in front of her face, staring right into her eyes with his green, magnetic ones. "I'm not worried about Barkk. I'm worried about my kitten's _coronaries_. You're going to kill him stone dead if you carry on with that behaviour."

"What are you talking about?" Marinette looked at Plagg suspiciously. Was he letting slip more than she had bargained for? "I only said a few puns during the battle, I don't see how that could kill him stone dead. He flirts and puns much worse than that with me!"

"It's your whole behaviour, Pigtails. I mean… Blondie nearly had a heart attack this morning." He went upside down and gave her a pointed look. "That worries me, for the sake of my kitten."

"His name is _Adrien_ , Plagg, not Blondie. Why don't you call people with their own name? And what does the fact that _Adrien_ nearly had a heart attack have anything to do with the coronaries of _your kitten_?" She gave him a sly look and saw him panicking for a second. She had him cornered, and she knew it. But then, she saw him sigh and relax, as his look became nearly solemn.

"Is there any need for me to keep the secret any longer? Do I really need to say it? Or _not_ say it, to be honest, because you know very well, Pigtails, that _I can't say his name to you!_ " He finished eating his Pecorino and folded his paws on his chest. "And you know what I mean. I can't say *BURP*'s name because of the magic of the Miraculous. There. Happy? Now you know it. Just try to not give him another heart attack, please, the poor kid has been sheltered all his life, he wouldn't be able to take it."

Marinette gave him a really soft look. "I knew that, deep down, you love him." She could swear that she could see the kwami's cheeks getting darker.

"I'm only worried about my Camembert, that's all. You know, he buys me only the best. Other people may not be able to… _afford_ it…" He smirked as he said it, and as she saw that, Marinette understood that Plagg was now playing her own game.

"And besides Pigtails," he continued after a short moment in silence, "my kitten's not stupid. He may be blind, but not stupid. It won't take him too long to join the dots if you continue like this. I mean…" Now was his turn to give her a sly look. "Don't tell me that you didn't notice how many times he tried to have a look at your ring today? How long do you think it will take him to know the truth?"

Marinette giggled. "Yes, I did notice, Plagg. And don't worry. I won't be making an attempt on the coronaries of your kitten for much longer. We'll put him out of his misery tonight!" She gave him a cunning smile. "You'll see!"

oOo

"See you this evening, Maman, Papa!" Marinette gave a quick kiss to her parents before heading out of the bakery from the back door. She did have a few minutes before the first lesson for the afternoon was due to start, so she decided to take her time and enjoy her short walk to school. She waited at the traffic light for the green indicator to show and calmly crossed the road, paying attention to the traffic for once. It was refreshing to be able to walk to school without panicking about being late; Marinette started to muse about doing it more often. Sometimes she really needed a little time to clear her mind.

And she definitely needed to clear her mind today. So many things had happened in a matter of just a few hours! She still had to come to terms with half of them. She couldn't believe that only the night before she had woken up from a dream and had for the first time realised that there were similarities between her Chaton and Adrien. She shook her head and chuckled, thinking of Adrien's panic from earlier, and the way he had reacted when she had flirted with him… She wondered why she had been so worried about doing it until then; what was the point of all her anxiety? He was her Chaton, after all. That knowledge by itself was giving her confidence.

"Hello, Marinette!" A voice she knew way too well took her out of her _rêverie_ and brought her back to reality.

"Uh… Hi, Adrien, what are you doing here? You're usually in class," she wondered, subconsciously proud of herself; she had again managed to not stutter, and all because she had just been thinking that Adrien was her Chaton. She made a note to herself to keep that detail in mind from now on.

Adrien was waiting at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the school gate. When she looked at him, he beamed a bright smile. Marinette couldn't help feeling her heart skipping a beat. She gulped and had to remind herself four times that that was her Chaton. _No need to feel flustered. None._

"Oh I had just arrived and I saw you getting here, so I waited for you."

"That's really nice of you, thank you!" How could she continue keeping her cool and flirting with him? That boy was going to be the death of her today, Marinette thought. She smiled back and made for starting to walk up the steps to the gate when she saw his lips turning into a sly smile that she had never seen on his face before. At least, when he wasn't wearing a mask…

"Uh, Marinette? Could you hold something for me?" he said as his smile widened into a toothy grin.

Her heart started pounding faster. "Sure… what?" She looked at him, but he wasn't carrying anything. She didn't realise what was happening until it was too late, and he had grabbed her hand with his.

"My hand!" he said and winked. She was sure that she saw him sniggering when she felt blood rushing to her face. Cheeky cat…He kept a strong hold on her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers, and started walking firmly up the stairs to the school gate, nearly dragging her along.

Marinette could only blush deeper and walk through the gate hand in hand with him. She felt the eyes of everyone in the hall moving towards them and wished she could dig a hole on the ground and hide. "A-Adrien? What are you doing? Why…"

He smiled a perfect replica of his alter ego's Cheshire grin, but before she could say anything, he opened the door of the locker room and dragged her inside, his hand stubbornly and firmly wrapped around hers.

"Adrikins!" Chloé's voice exclaimed from somewhere on their right. Chloé jumped at Adrien's throat and hugged him theatrically; Marinette could clearly see the discomfort in Adrien's body language and his cringing expression. But then, Chloé broke her hug and her gaze fell on the offending intertwined hands and her eyes suddenly grew very wide. "Dupain-Cheng!" she boomed. "How dare you hold hands with Adrikins! Your _average_ hand has no right to touch his. Shoo!" She tried to break the hold of Adrien's hand on hers, but Adrien firmly resisted. Chloé's expression when she looked at him was clearly one of shock.

" _I'm_ holding _her_ hand, Chloé, not the other way round. And I like my hand to stay where it is, thank you very much." He opened his locker with his free hand and picked up the books he needed for the afternoon, placing them into his bag. Chloé was his oldest friend and Marinette remembered how many times Adrien had been the only person in the whole school to defend her or take her side. It was strange to hear Adrien speak to her this harshly. But Marinette supposed he probably had yet to forgive her for having nearly exposed the Dog Miraculous, when they were in class before lunch.

"But… why?" asked Chloé with a whimper, her voice starting to crack.

"Because I want to, that's why." He shot her a hard look. "Truth to be told, she's really amazing and she makes _any_ other girl in this room look _average_. So if you don't mind, I'll meet you in class, Chloé." She couldn't help but blush all the way to the roots of her hair at that remark, especially noticing how broken heartedly Chloé was looking at them. She felt a bit sorry for Chloé, to be honest. That was a harsh comment, especially considering that there was nobody else in the locker room.

But she couldn't think about it, as Adrien literally started dragging her away. He did stop in front of her locker though, to allow her to grab her books. Then, probably noticing how much she was struggling to pick up her things with only one hand, he initially made to let go of his grip on her other hand, but immediately after he held it tighter and started helping her with his own free hand.

"You do know that this is totally unnecessary, Adrien, and that it would be much easier for both of us if I could use both of my hands?" she whispered, and then gasped after she realised that her tone sounded a bit too close to that of Ladybug that she had initially intended it to.

"I know. I just want to." He winked at her. _Winked. At. Her._ How dare he wink at her? It should be illegal, if followed by such a bright smile. He was seriously making her intent falter, as she had to remind herself yet again, for the millionth time, that she didn't need to feel embarrassed, because that was her Minou, and she wouldn't allow her Minou to beat her at her own game. Would she? This time, she had the upper hand. She ought to.

But why was he acting this way? What had happened to the flustered Adrien that she had left at lunch time? Or even to the kind and gentle Adrien that she had known up to then? This version of Adrien looked like a slightly watered down version of Chat Noir. Was he doing it on purpose? Had he figured her out and wanted her to realise who he was? _Let's not jump to conclusions, Marinette!_

When they entered Ms. Mendeleiev's lab and he walked to their desks with her, she could see Alya's amazement at the sight of Adrien's hand on hers, but she could see her getting even more astonished, when Adrien asked Alya if they could swap seats for the rest of the day.

"What's going on here?" asked Alya as she picked up her bag and books and moved near Nino. "Not that I'm complaining… not at all. I do get a bit distracted here with Nino, but I can live with that for an afternoon. But… I want an explanation first!"

Adrien sat down and let go of her hand to put down his bag and take his book and tablet out of it. Marinette took advantage of the moment of freedom to do the same, and was trying her best to keep her hand to herself, while focusing on opening their Chemistry book to the page they had been working on in the previous lesson. Her heart was working overtime in her chest and she noticed Plagg's electric eyes staring at her from her purse. She closed her purse tight, but she saw that the zipper started to move by itself, and very soon, Plagg's eyes were digging into her soul again. She forced herself to avert her gaze from her purse and focus on the Chemistry book.

Chloé finally entered the classroom with Sabrina immediately following. Both girls glared at her and went straight to their seats without giving her another look. Marinette stopped feeling sorry for Chloé. She wasn't worth it.

"Nothing's going on here," said Adrien with a smirk, catching her attention again. Even Alya's mouth opened slightly at the sight of Adrien smirking. So it wasn't just her thinking that he looked different this afternoon! "I only decided to stick to her like _glu-cose_ … She's so _Copper_ and _Tellurium_." He looked up. "Oh, no, maybe she's full of _Beryllium_ , _Gold_ , and _Titanium_?" He tapped his finger on his lips, keeping his gaze looking up to the ceiling. Then he looked back at her and her heart skipped a beat. She couldn't believe the dreamy look he was giving to her. "No, she's just _Fluorine_ , _Iodine_ , and _Neon_. Nevermind. One thing is sure, I've definitely got my _Ion_ her."

She kept looking into his eyes in utter amazement, not understanding what he was talking about, when she heard on her side Alya and Nino both groaning and facepalming almost at the same time. She managed to break eye contact with Adrien to look at her friends, who were staring at the page of their Chemistry book with the table of elements. "Duuuude…" muttered Nino after another loud groan. "This is so messed up…"

"What…?" Marinette asked as she blinked and frowned in puzzlement. Then, Alya sighed and wrote a couple of words down, passing on a piece of paper to her.

'Copper-Tellurium = Cu-Te; Beryllium-Gold-Titanium = Be-Au-Ti (ful); Fluorine-Iodine-Neon = F-I-Ne. You two owe me an explanation, because this Adrien doesn't match my idea of Adrien. At all!', the message said. The room became suddenly extremely hot, as she felt her face lit up like a lightbulb. She looked down and saw Plagg smirk into her purse. He mouthed to her, 'I told you so.' _Yes,_ she thought as she pushed her forehead on her desk in front of her. _Yes, Plagg. You did tell me. And you are right. Now stop staring because I can't take teasing even from you..._

Adrien winked at her when he saw that she now knew what he was trying to say. Then, his Cheshire grin spread on his lips again. "We have such great chemistry that we should do some _biology_ together," he said, loudly enough for Alya and Nino to hear, as Ms. Mendeleiev was entering the classroom.

Marinette groaned loudly. He must have done it on purpose. He knew that she couldn't reply at all now that the lesson was starting.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," came Ms. Mendeleiev's voice from the teacher's desk, breaking her train of thought of the many ways she would kill Chat Noir that night: throw him in the Seine, tie him up at the top of the Eiffel Tower head down and leave him there for the night, or… "Is there anything you'd like to share with the class?"

Marinette looked up and realised that her groan must have been so loud that Ms Mendeliev had heard it. "Uh, no Ms. Mendeleiev, I'm so sorry!" She blushed again profusely.

"Good. So we can start our lesson. Please open your book to page 325. We will look today at the behaviour of Copper Sulfate when it comes in contact with water. You will find some powder samples on your desks…"

Marinette spent a good part of the chemistry experiment biting her lower lip. Adrien was concentrating on the experiment, which left her a little time to regain her cool. When the copper sulfate powder melted down in a blue liquid, she saw him scribbling something on a piece of paper and she internally screamed, because she had a feeling she knew what was coming. He passed on the paper to her and she bit her lip again. 'I must be copper sulfate, and you must be water. That's why I'm melting in a puddle of _blue_ at your feet today,' the message said.

She glared at him and he shot her a bright smile. _Bright smile my foot… you shouldn't be_ allowed _to write things like that, mister. Attempt in such a way to my sanity! No way!_ She felt the sense of irritation she had been bottling up from the beginning of their afternoon lesson almost exploding in her chest as she shot him a resolute glare. _So are you playing now, Minou? Let's see what you do when_ I _play with_ you _!_

She did notice that he looked surprised at her glare, and that he had gulped a bit awkwardly. Now it was again her turn to have fun!

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**Author's Note:**

**Here's chapter 6. The cat started to play (yes, he's a nerd. And a dork. You're right, I hear you!)… and the Bug was again flustered. But she's back on her feet to play again. And… the cat isn't done playing yet ;) ready for the mutual turn? :) Who will beat the other, you think?**

**Again, thank you so much for the follows and favs. And for those who reviewed, thank you so much for making my day! Please review more and let me know what you think!**

**See you on Saturday for chapter 7!**

**PS: I know he's been a bit harsh with Chloé. But he's still annoyed at her for having nearly explosed the Dog Miraculous earlier on. AND he just repeated back what Chloé had said to Marinette, which he hadn't liked at all. She may be his first friend, but she also needs to change her attitude, especially after Miracle Queen!**


	7. And the Winner is...

"Come in," said Ms. Mendeleiev when someone knocked on the classroom door.

The beardy face of Mr. Damocles appeared in the doorway. "Can I have a word with you? It's about one of your students."

"Of course." Ms. Medeleiev rose from her chair and looked at her class. "This will give time to those who still haven't finished the experiment to catch up. No chatting and no getting out of your chairs."

But as soon as Ms. Mendeleiev went out of the door, most of the class started chatting and giggling away. Adrien was glad that he had finished his experiment already. It could get hard to concentrate when everyone was chatting at the same time.

"Alya?" Adrien suddenly heard Marinette's voice call for her best friend, and the suave tone of her call made him understand that he was in trouble. He gulped awkwardly as Alya turned around.

"Are you okay, girl?"

Marinette looked with great interest at her nails. "I was wondering… how long will it take for that picture to be blown up?"

"I sent it off to FNAC this morning. That's where I usually go to print my pictures. It should be ready to be picked up at the Champs-Elysées store by the time we finish school." She looked at him wiggling her eyebrows. "After that, Sunshine, you will be in charge of a postal delivery."

He knew what she meant, but he had to fake surprise. "What do you mean?"

"That poor girl was so distressed after Mr. Bug purified the akuma. I promised her that you would pay her a little visit. And that you would bring the photograph with you." She stood and pointed a finger to his nose. "And you won't get away with not doing it."

Adrien put his hands in front of him, in a defensive pose. "Of course, Alya… as long as Gorilla doesn't mind driving me wherever she lives, I don't see why not."

"You didn't seem to need your bodyguard last night while you were wandering around…" Marinette glanced quickly at him and gave him a devious smile. Then, her attention went back to her nails. "And by the way, you still need to tell us where you got those pyjamas." Then she noticed that Alya wanted to intervene. "And those slippers, you're right, Alya! You were quite _fetching_ , _pawfect_ I dare say."

 _Uh?_ His eyes widened as she gave him a knowing look. Was that a… dog pun? "Uh… yes… as I said… I sleepwalk… I managed to go past my bodyguard last night."

"Let me know if you need any _rescuing_." She winked at him. "I'm sure that between Alya, Nino and me, we can find a way to set you _leash-free_!"

Alya giggled. "What's with the dog puns, Marinette? You're getting even worse than Chat Noir. Uh, Chien Marron, I beg your pardon…"

"Ah not much." Marinette smiled softly while with her right hand she reached to Adrien's neck and gave a little tap on his collar necklace. "Maybe our heroes' new look inspired me!"

Adrien's heart skipped a beat as Marinette touched his neck and the collar necklace that rested on it. It was his chance to check things out. He grabbed Marinette's hand with his and kept a strong hold on it as he locked his gaze with hers. His lips curled up in a small smirk when he noticed the panic in her eyes. She had made a mistake, and she must have just realised it. He copied her mannerism from when they were on the road, and looked very attentively at her hand, touching it softly with his and focusing on her ring finger.

"You know, Marinette, Alya had a point," he whispered. "It does look like my ring." He allowed his gaze to keep being locked into hers for a moment that felt endless. Then, he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles softly, still keeping eye contact and internally smiling at the flustered mess that Marinette had suddenly become. "We must shop at the same jewellery store."

As soon as Adrien let go of Marinette's hand, she jerked it back out of his grip, her face as red as Ladybug's suit. "Uh… y-yes… ma-maybe…" She was having problems with her words again.

"Didn't you say earlier that your Nonna sent you the ring as a present, Marinette?" asked Alya, raising one of her eyebrows. Oh he was enjoying this now. For once, Alya was playing his game.

Marinette blushed to the root of her hair. "Y-yeah. Sure. O-of course, yeah. Nonnina. I mean, Nonna Gina. Yes."

Ms. Mendeleiev returned to the room and cleared her throat, causing everyone to fall silent all of sudden and return to their seats. But Adrien couldn't concentrate any longer on Ms. Mendeleiev's lesson. His strong suspicions had become certainties.

First, his Lady couldn't stop punning and flirting with him that morning. She had said that she was 'role-reversing' to fit the role, but Adrien couldn't get himself to believe it. Although when she had been Lady Noire against Reflekta she _had_ joked a bit more than usual, she certainly hadn't called him ' _Toutou d'amour_ '. No… There was something fishy going on in Lady Noire's mind. And the look she gave him! It felt as if she was scanning his entire soul and searching for something. But what? What was she trying to discover? And why did she swap Miraculouses, what was this experiment she was conducting and needing his ring for?

Earlier that morning when he saw Marinette… She was as flirty as Lady Noire had been, and that behaviour coming from _her_ had taken him aback big time. Besides, she had reached immediately for his right hand, as if trying to get a confirmation of something that she had found out already. And she really seemed to enjoy the fact that she was embarrassing him. But the second he caught onto that and tried to flirt back… there she was again, a flustered stuttering mess.

He knew now that the ring sitting on Marinette's finger was the Cat Miraculous. There was no denying it, after he had actually managed to see it clearly. So he had no more doubts in his mind as to the identity of his Lady. Barkk's words popped back into his mind. Had he... misread her behaviour all this time? Maybe… Maybe he _didn't_ intimidate her, after all. Maybe she just got flustered? Embarrassed? But why? And why only with _him_?

And then, it suddenly dawned on him. He gasped so loudly that Ms. Mendeleiev turned around to look at the class, probably trying to figure out who had made such a distracting sound. It took him all his training as a model to stay sitting there, faking interest in the lesson, while in reality his heart was racing madly in his chest and all he would have wanted to do was to stand up and scream.

He looked intently at Marinette with the corner of his eye, his lips curling in a knowing smirk. Of course. Barkk _was_ right all along. How had he been so blind?

oOo

Marinette spent the rest of Ms. Mendeleiev's lesson being extremely flustered and unable to concentrate on anything that the teacher was saying. The mantra she had been repeating to herself all day, and that had worked all day up to then, had suddenly lost all effectiveness the second that her 'no need to be flustered, it's _only_ my minou' had suddenly become, 'OH MY GOD _IT IS INDEED_ MY MINOU!' as Adrien had picked up her right hand and had gotten a really good look at the Cat Miraculous on her finger.

She had seen his lips curl up in a small smirk and his gaze glue onto hers; when he had brought her hand to his mouth in a deliberate and resolute manner and she had felt the softness of his lips on her knuckles, her whole world had fallen apart. She had no idea why. Chat Noir had kissed her hand so many times in the last few months and she'd never had such a reaction to this gesture. Once, he had kissed her hand even when she was in civilian form, the day they faced Evillustrator, so she couldn't even tell herself that it was the actual feeling of his lips on her bare skin that did the trick.

No… it had been the whole picture. The whole rollercoaster she had put herself through in the last few hours. She had thought that telling herself that Adrien was her minou was going to help. And it _did…_ until Adrien's actions and mannerism overlapped with those of the hero in black. Until his face and that of Chat Noir started to fade into one in her head. That had been the moment when Marinette had known that she'd lost at her own game. Because there was one thing that she hadn't realised until then, and it hit her in the head like a ton of bricks.

She considered how stupid and blind she must have been - there she had been, every day, groaning and pouting over how Adrien was saying to everyone that she was 'just a friend', but wishing that in reality she was more than that in his eyes. But _she_ had done the exact same thing with her minou. The realisation hit her straight in the face. She had tried to convince herself for all those months that she didn't feel anything more than friendship for Chat Noir. She had been telling herself day in and day out that he was her best friend and that she couldn't possibly have a romantic interest in him. But… she had only fooled herself.

Because the second that Adrien's and Chat's face had merged together in her head, she had understood that she had fallen for the same boy twice. And hard. She'd lost _marvellously_. For someone who prided herself on winning every single type of game and videogame she'd ever played with, that was saying something. She was absolutely and utterly _gobsmacked_.

Once again, she couldn't put two words in sequence in front of him and it didn't matter whether she thought that he was Chat Noir. What made things worse, she could clearly see the wheels turning in his head and there was nothing she could do, or say, to stop his train of thought. She may have had the upper hand to start with… but at the seduction and flirting game, Chat Noir - no, _Adrien_ , was the master. She pouted at the thought of having to admit complete defeat.

No time at all seemed to have passed before the bell that marked the end of the lesson rang, nearly startling her, lost as she was in her thoughts. Alya's voice seemed to come from a different dimension. "So, Sunshine… when can I give you the picture to deliver to Janine's house?" she said. Oh yeah, that girl. She'd completely forgotten about her, absorbed as she was in her own misery.

"Fencing practice has been cancelled and I haven't informed my bodyguard about it," said Adrien's voice, coming from the same distant dimension. "I need to go home for my Chinese lesson, but if you meet me here when I'm back, I can talk to my bodyguard and perhaps persuade him to help."

Alya beamed at him. "Good stuff, it's settled, then!" she said and focused her attention back to gather her books and leave the classroom.

"Marinette?" She blinked and looked around when she heard someone calling her name. Only after looking completely lost did she realise that it was Adrien, right in front of her. "Marinette? Are you all right?"

"Uh… yes, I'm okay."

He offered her his hand to help her stand up and she took it gratefully, giving him a small smile. She then proceeded to pick up her books and tablet and put them back into her bag. She made to get out of her desk and noticed that Adrien had waited for her. He grinned at her and put his right hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer.

He looked at her straight in the eyes. "You know, I have a secret," he said.

Marinette felt all blood rushing to her face. "Yes? What is it?" she barely managed to whisper.

Her heart seemed to want to get out of her chest, but it somehow doubled its beating the second he cupped a hand on her cheek, his beautiful grass green eyes locked onto hers. She was starting to feel dizzy and thought that her heart couldn't race any faster, when Adrien suddenly closed the gap and pressed his lips to hers. The world around Marinette ceased existing for one endless, but at the same time way too short, moment.

She had also forgotten how to breathe when he pulled away and whispered softly into her ear, "It's not my fault I fell in love with you. You're the one who tripped me." And then he winked, smiled softly at her and walked out.

Marinette collapsed into her seat, eyes wide open, a hand firmly resting on her mouth. With the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed Alya and Nino looking at her, mouths wide open and eyes bulging out of their sockets. A quick glance around showed to her that the kiss hadn't gone unnoticed by anyone in her class, and most of their classmates' expressions were the same as Alya and Nino's. Her gaze fell to her purse, and she wished she hadn't looked there, because Plagg was staring at her with his green electric eyes, an eyebrow raised in an expression of pure mockery.

"Okay, now you have some explaining to do, girl. I'm not moving from here until you spill. And you better start from the beginning!"

Marinette's face flushed beet-red. Chat Noir… he had surpassed himself on this occasion. Her knees felt like jelly at the mere thought of that kiss. And of what he had said afterwards! Her heart couldn't stop racing, as flashes of a white akuma with piercing blue eyes started popping into her mind, the words that resounded in her nightmares echoing into her ears:

_"Our love destroyed the world, Marinette!"_

She looked around as tears filled her eyes, almost waiting for Bunnyx to appear and tell her off, informing her that she had destroyed the world again. But Bunnix didn't come and slowly, the fierce beat of her heart started to calm down, a glimmer of hope spreading around her soul.

"Sorry, Alya. I need to go now. I'll tell you later. Promise." That said, she stood and walked out of the classroom, without even giving a further look to her friends. She had to talk to Plagg. And to Tikki. And then… it was time to put an end to her game.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**There you go, we have a winner. Not the one Marinette had forecasted to be, but never mind. After all, she's a winner too, right? ;) Things are starting to wrap up from now, but first Marinette has to have a conversation with Tikki and Plagg. You will see why in the next chapter "Lifting the BLANC-et". Keep following me, the next chapter will be out on Tuesday!**

**Again, thank you so much for the follows and favs. And for those who reviewed, thank you so much for making my day! Please review more and let me know what you think!**


	8. Lifting the BLANC-et

"Don't look at me like that, Plagg!" Marinette pouted as she took the Ladybug earrings from her pocket and placed them on her desk, allowing Tikki to appear in a flash of pink light. She sat on her computer seat, feeling completely deflated.

Plagg smirked. "Admit it. You don't want to look at me because you know perfectly well that I was right. It was a stupid game, and you dragged it out for too long."

"Come on, Plagg, don't dig the blade deeper…" Tikki flew towards him, trying to carry him away somewhere and talk to him, but Plagg resisted.

"No, Sugarcube. I waited for you to be here as well, because I didn't want to repeat myself. She should never have taken me away from my kitten, especially not that way and you know it well. I was very surprised that you would agree with her plan. And even more shocked that you would put it into action, too!" Plagg looked sternly at Tikki and for once, Marinette felt that Tikki was at loss for words. They exchanged glances and Marinette flushed a bit, totally aware that even her own kwami had resisted a lot, and had indeed objected, before agreeing to take Adrien's ring - and Plagg too - without discussing it with the boy beforehand.

She wanted to say something, but Plagg continued, "If it was a game, and you wanted to play with him, you should have explained the rules beforehand, shouldn't you? Not just throw him on the board without having a clue. It was low… very low in fact. I can only imagine the panic that my poor kitten must have felt when he didn't find the Miraculous on his finger. He must have thought that you had replaced him. That he wasn't good enough. Do you know what damage your little game could have done to his self esteem? That poor kid is already so bashed down by that good to nothing of a father and that ice queen of an assistant. He doesn't deserve such treatment from his Ladybug too. You should be his safe place! Not give him a heart attack in the middle of the night!" He looked at her sternly and Marinette couldn't do anything more than gulp, blush profusely and lower her gaze in shame.

The truth was… she hadn't even _considered_ what effect the disappearance of his Miraculous could have had on Adrien. She had only selfishly thought of taking the Miraculous away so she could check if the ring on his finger was the Cat Miraculous or not. She felt a sudden pang of guilt twisting her stomach as tears started rolling down her cheeks. Plagg had a point and she died a little bit inside at the thought that she had been, indeed, too careless and cruel with her minou. She knew perfectly well that he didn't deserve it.

"And now," continued the black kwami, "she doesn't want to admit that she lost, at her own game!" He smirked. "My kitten won at a game he didn't even know he was playing." He picked up a piece of Parmesan cheese from a small dish on Marinette's desk and started nibbling on it. Marinette was sure she could sense a feeling of pride exuding from Plagg's words.

"Okay, okay Plagg," Marinette wiped her tears, sighed and flushed bright red. "I'm really sorry for taking you away from him. I shouldn't have done it and I admit I hadn't thought about it carefully at all. I thought that by giving him Barkk and explaining to him that I wasn't replacing him and that the swap was only temporary it would have been okay but… yes, I take your point. You're his friend as much as Tikki is mine, and if Master Fu, when he was still the Guardian, had given me a temporary kwami without consulting me first… I wouldn't have liked it. I admit it, you're totally right. And I will apologise to Adrien tonight." Then she looked at him sheepishly and continued, "I also admit that… your kitten won, okay? And he didn't just win. He completely floored me. But… that's _not_ the reason why I needed to talk to you and Tikki."

Tikki flew to her face and looked at her straight in the eyes. "I knew that there was a reason why you had summoned me, Marinette. What's the problem?"

She slumped her shoulders and tried to find a comfortable position on her chair by placing her elbows on top of her legs, but soon stood up to change position and straddled her chair, resting her chin at the top of the backrest. "I… love him, Tikki. I… have loved him all along."

Tikki tilted her head and looked confused as she met Marinette's gaze with hers. "Is this… such a surprise for you, Marinette? I thought you knew you had a massive crush on Adrien from the day he gave you his umbrella!"

"No, not Adrien, Tikki." A single tear came out of the corner of Marinette's right eye and fell down her cheek. "Chat Noir." She sniffed loudly. "I… was so blinded by my crush on Adrien that I kept on saying that I only considered Chat Noir a friend. But… I was lying to myself and now I know it."

Tikki raised an eyebrow. "Marinette… you are aware that…"

"Yes, I know. They _are_ the same person," interrupted Marinette. Then she sighed again. "I was repeating in my head like a mantra that Adrien was my minou… it was helping me cope with the flirting and everything was going perfect. Until… until Adrien had a good look at the ring on my finger and must have understood everything. He kissed my hand. And… the _way_ he did it, the _look_ he gave me, his _mannerisms…_ everything! The picture in my head of Adrien and Chat just merged together, and it made things _worse_ rather than better, Tikki. It… it completely overwhelmed me. That's when I realised that I love him."

Her tears were now streaming on her cheeks; she wasn't even trying to stop them. "Then I thought of Chat Blanc. I kept looking around to see if Bunnyx was going to appear and tell me off. Because I had just revealed myself to Chat Noir, and understood who was behind his mask too. Because he had just told me that he loved me, and I knew that I loved him too."

"Did she come?" said Tikki at the same time as Plagg muttered, "What is she talking about, Sugarcube?"

Marinette shook her head. "No, she didn't," she said, both of them completely ignoring Plagg's question.

"Then you know it now… what I told you last night was true. You should never trust everything an akumatised person says." Tikki smiled as she said that.

"Can someone explain to me what are you talking about, please?" Plagg flew near Tikki and crossed his paws on his chest darting his green electric eyes between them.

Marinette sighed. "Sorry, Plagg. I know… you don't know about Chat Blanc." The black kwami shook his head. Marinette sighed again. She started thinking back to the day that Bunnyx had come asking for her help and soon, her mind was completely lost in her thoughts. "It was the day of Adrien's fifth Nameday celebration. I had made a beret for him, embroidered with the same lines he wears on his t-shirt and adorned with a couple of hearts on the side." She went quiet for a moment and her face flushed beet-red while she stared with great interest at her hands. "I had the very bad idea of transforming to leave it on his bed."

"Oh yeah. I remember that, Pigtails. You don't know how hard I had to work to persuade him that you and Ladybug weren't the same person, especially after he found out that his fanclub in Brazil didn't exist!" Plagg gave her a disapproving look. "He recognised your touch and your workmanship in the beret. The stories I had to come up with! If you had to lie to him, you could have found a better excuse!"

Marinette blushed profusely. "Sorry, Plagg. I… should never have gone into his room. I know I did something terribly wrong." She started sobbing softly. "But at first, I had done something even worse. I had _signed_ the card on the present and had gone out of his room without noticing that he was coming in. So… he must have seen me."

She sniffed loudly and continued, "On the day, I thought he may have understood that I was Ladybug and told someone, like Nino for example, and that Nino would have told someone else and so on, until Chat Noir had found out as well. But…" She rolled her eyes when she noticed the stern look Plagg was giving her. He huffed in response, which she liked even less. "Don't look at me like that. Now I know that I was wrong. My minou would never give my identity away, I get it. He knew because he _was_ Adrien. If you already had problems taking his mind away from joining the dots without my name written on the present, just imagine what would have happened had my name _been_ there."

"He would have joined the dots in a second." Plagg nodded. "He's not stupid, Pigtails."

"Yes, I know." She went quiet for a second, to gather her thoughts. "I don't know what happened in the timeline that was created because of my mistake. But somehow, he was akumatised. And when Bunnyx brought me to the timeline…" She couldn't stop her sobs. Tikki moved behind her head and started stroking her hair softly and humming, but even that didn't calm Marinette down. It was only after a long time that she eventually managed to look at Plagg again and continue. "It was horrible, Plagg. The moon had been destroyed. The whole city was under water. The Eiffel Tower was down… it was an apocalyptic scenario. He was… sitting on top of Montparnasse Tower. Alone. Who knows how long he'd been like that. He… was all white, from tip to toe. Just his eyes were icy blue. He wanted my Miraculous, he said he wanted to put things right. I could sense that he had gone insane. And he said that 'our love had done it'. Our love had _destroyed the world_!"

She hid again her face behind the backrest of her seat, her wails echoing around the room for another long moment. When she looked at Plagg again, she could see concern in his electric green eyes. He looked at Tikki pointedly and then his gaze returned to meet her own.

"I have told her on many occasions that she should take the words of an Akuma with a grain of salt, Plagg." Tikki sighed. "She had nightmares of icy blue eyes for months. Don't be too hard on her please."

"How can I _not_ be hard on her, Sugarcube? She knows by now that people that are akumatised just say what that monster makes them believe it's true. How could she believe such bulls-"

"STINKYSOCK! Language!" Tikki interrupted him.

"No, Sugarcube. You won't shut me up like this. This is bullshit. And I'm going to spell it for you, Pigtails, if you don't know the word. B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T! It stinks from a mile away! You haven't believed what an AKUMATISED PERSON has told you, have you? I thought you were the brains here!" Marinette lowered her gaze. She couldn't look Plagg in the eyes. A part of herself knew that he was right. Who knows what had triggered Chat Noir, but probably everything that the boy had told Marinette was just the brainwashing that Hawkmoth had made him believe before he had Cataclysmed them both. Then, she remembered a disturbing detail and had to say it.

"Hawkmoth was _dead_ , Plagg. When I was running away from Chat Blanc, I fell in the water and I saw what I thought initially were two statues, one of myself and one of Hawkmoth. But then I realised to my horror that it was indeed me, and Hawkmoth, for real. Chat Blanc had used his Cataclysm on us." Plagg gasped loudly. "I asked Chat Blanc about it when I went out of the water and he said that it had been an accident, but he _had_ killed us both. Hawkmoth wasn't controlling him any more." She was trying to believe what Plagg and Tikki were telling her, but months of overthinking the whole situation couldn't be erased in just a few minutes. She needed answers and she knew that nobody would ever be able to give her what she wanted.

"He may have been dead, Pigtails. But the damage he'd done was still there. The akumas brainwash their victims. They make them believe what Hawkmoth wants. Why do you think they are called his 'champions'? They are there to achieve his aim, whether he's alive or not. The fact that he wasn't there any longer just meant that Chat Blanc didn't have any more directions, not that he had gained back his full wit!" Plagg crossed his paws on his chest and frowned. "Do you think this would have been the first time that the Butterfly holder got killed in a battle? His influence stays in his victims. It only goes away when the akuma leaves the victim's body!"

"In fact, I think that maybe having severed the connection with the Butterfly and its holder may have messed up even more with Chat Blanc's mind," added Tikki. "And we don't even know how long he'd been akumatised for. Any longer than a day or two could play very bad tricks to a victim's mind!"

"I think the longest someone has ever been akumatised for in the past was a couple of weeks." Plagg shuddered. "I… still remember the look on his face when the akuma was released. They all thought he was crazy, and he was so strong willed…"

"For the millionth time, Stinkysock. The arson of Rome was NOT Nooroo's fault." Tikki flew in front of Plagg and looked at him pointedly.

"Maybe not directly, Sugarcube, but that poor fella was so mentally challenged after being akumatised for two full weeks that his mind was completely gone!" He pouted. "I told Nooroo that it was too much for the human mind! Would he listen to me? Nope!"

Marinette kept looking between Plagg and Tikki, not completely sure what was the subject of the conversation. But one thing she had understood. Sometimes at some point in history, someone had been akumatised for _over two weeks_. Her heart sank. The thought of her minou being there, alone, suffering for all that time made her heart bleed. But that wouldn't apply to Chat Blanc, would it? Why would Bunnyx wait such a long time before calling her? Surely she wouldn't have waited _weeks_ before trying to resolve the situation, right? She realised she had completely zoned out only when she felt two pairs of paws on her shoulders and heard both kwamis call her name, trying to bring her back to reality.

"Sorry, Tikki, Plagg. I was thinking." She gulped and looked at Plagg again. "So you don't think I should worry?"

Plagg sighed. "To be completely honest Pigtails? Yes and no. What I _would_ worry about is his father and his father's assistant. _They_ really worry me. They have too much power over that poor kid's life. What I would NOT worry about is my kitten and the love he feels for you. As much as I've had it up to my ears of his constant pining about you, in and out of the mask." Marinette gasped when he said that and he stopped talking, pouted and frowned. "Yes, Pigtails. In and OUT of the mask. What did you think, that he only loved your spots?"

Marinette's face became the colour of the Ladybug's suit as she smiled sheepishly. "Uh… yes?"

"NO! That fool was pining about Ladybug and how much he loved her and why she wouldn't give him a chance, and then he was pining about _Marinette_ and how amazing she was, how lucky he was to have her in his life, how wonderful she had been that day and bla-bla-bla-bla-bla! He would NEVER STOP!" He rolled his eyes and sighed. "I always told him that it was much better to focus on cheese. But would he listen to me? Nope. It was always Ladybug here, Marinette there…"

"W-what about… Kagami?" asked Marinette breathlessly. She couldn't believe what Plagg was telling her.

"Fencer-lady?" Plagg smirked and made a dismissive gesture with his paw. "Nah! He did like her a little bit, but… he couldn't get himself to feel any more than that. She also tried to kiss him and he refused. Nah. Not the right g-"

"Plagg!" Tikki went behind him and put both paws on his mouth. "This is NOT your story to tell!"

"Ashehwhendjmjk…" Plagg managed to say, and Marinette couldn't help but giggle.

"Thank you, Plagg!" She giggled some more. "I think it's time to go out for a stroll, don't you? I can drop off a certain kitten on the way and get back a pup."

"Are you sure you want to do it, Marinette? There'll be no going back!" Tikki asked, picking up a macaron from a small dish on Marinette's desk, near the one that held Plagg's cheese, and nibbling on it quickly.

Marinette sighed. "Yes, Tikki. I suppose… if it wasn't the right thing to do, by now Bunnyx would have surely visited. As Master Fu said once, I think it's time for the noodles to get thrown in the water. Or more likely," she added, "I think that the dice have already been cast. Those noodles need to be taken _out_ of the water, or they'd become mushy."

Plagg flew to his dish on Marinette's desk and picked up a large piece of Pecorino cheese, nearly bigger than him, which he gulped in just one mouthful. "Okay, Pigtails. You know the words."

Marinette nodded. "Plagg, Claws out!" she said sternly, and the transformation wrapped around her in a flash of green light. She put her earrings safely into her side pocket, picked up her baton from the fold behind her back and with two jumps, disappeared out of the skylight window into the dusk.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Hope you enjoyed the conversation. And yes, Tikki and Plagg were talking about Nero. I didn't go into much detail because otherwise I would need to refresh my memory about Nero's life and this is just not the story for it, but I like to hint at real history so… there you go, now you know ;) Keep following me, the next chapter will be out on Saturday!**

**Again, thank you so much for the follows and favs. And for those who reviewed, thank you so much for making my day! Please review more and let me know what you think!**


	9. A Surprise Visit

"'我睡觉九点...'(1)," Adrien muttered to himself. "No, wait... that isn't right. It's '我九点睡觉'.(2)" He was pacing up and down his room, looking at his Chinese book and trying to fix the details into his memory prior to his upcoming lesson.

Barkk flew near him and looked straight at his face. "Chinese has changed quite a lot in 180 years," she said. "But I must say that you have a good accent."

"Do you really think so, Barkk?" Adrien beamed at her. "Thank you!" He gave her a sunny smile.

"Ah, stop smiling like that, or I won't remember what I was going to say!" She wiggled her eyebrows.

Adrien sniggered. "You're funny, you know…"

"I may be funny, but I was right." She winked at him. "And my advice works. You finally kissed her today."

Adrien put his Chinese book on his desk and straddled his desk chair, resting his chin on the backrest, a dreamy expression on his face. "Yeah… I did. And yes, you were right. It took me some time but… I got the message." He sighed dreamily. "She loves me, Barkk. Can you believe it? I… think she was rejecting me for… _me…_ how ironic is that?"

"Very." Barkk looked unimpressed. "So… what are you going to do now?" she asked.

"No idea. I will carry on flirting and go with the flow, I suppose. After my Chinese lesson I will meet Alya and go bring the photograph to Janine so I can apologise for having upset her so much. But… other than that, I don't know." He looked at Barkk pointedly. "Since she knows who I am and I know who she is… I suppose that next patrol, or the next akuma attack, are going to feel… different?" He started staring into nothing as he continued, "Hell, school is going to feel different! I would never have thought that My Lady was sitting right behind me from day one. And…" Panic hit him in the stomach as his heart started racing in his chest. He covered his mouth with his right hand. "I kissed her in front of the whole class. It sounded like such a good idea an hour ago but now… she's going to kill me stone dead when she sees me again."

"What about the other girl? Will you carry on using her?" She frowned and gave him a disapproving look, but Adrien stood up from his chair and glared at her.

"I've never used her, Barkk. It was mutual, to escape our parents!" he snapped.

Barkk frowned and folded her paws on her chest. "Tsk, you're still deluding yourself?"

Adrien was going to say something back when he heard a couple of knocks on his bedroom door and fell silent. "Adrien?" Nathalie's voice echoed from the corridor.

He sighed. "Come in, Nathalie." Barkk hid behind his head.

Nathalie's icy cold stare could have frozen a volcano when she entered his room. She was holding her tablet with one hand and with the other, she fiddled with her glasses, adjusting them unnecessarily. Her disappointment and frustration could be cut with a knife. "There has been a change of program."

Adrien folded his arms on his chest. What…? Maybe another last minute photoshoot? He cursed under his breath, because if that was the case, he would have needed to ring Alya to let her know that his plans had changed and that Janine had to wait another day for her 'postal delivery'. But then, someone stepped in from the corridor leading into his bedroom and Adrien's eyes grew wide.

"Kagami?" Talk about the devil...

Nathalie gave him a hard smile. "Your Chinese lesson has been postponed to tomorrow. I will have to move tomorrow's photoshoot to a different day and contact a few people. Your father and Mrs. Tsurugi are having an emergency meeting and your assistance is required to entertain Miss Tsurugi here, I'm sure you don't mind." She paused and adjusted her glasses again, a gesture that she usually did when she was angry. Adrien gulped. "Miss Tsurugi kindly informed us that your fencing lesson had been cancelled." She glared at him. " _Thanks for letting me know_ , Adrien."

"Uh… sorry, Nathalie, it slipped off my mind." His hand reached the nape of his neck, as his gaze ran to the ceiling. He felt blood rushing to his face.

Another hard smile. "Of course it has," Nathalie hissed. Then she nodded to both. "I will leave you and get back to my phone calls to change your arrangements for tomorrow." That said, she turned around and exited the room.

An awkward silence fell between Adrien and the dark haired Japanese girl. "Uh… Hi, Kagami." His hand was firmly on the nape of his neck, his gaze couldn't meet hers. But suddenly, she gave him a small smile and closed most distance between them, positioning her face in very close proximity to his. Her smile widened, probably noticing his discomfort?

"I thought you promised me ice cream. I'm holding you to it, Agreste!"

Adrien's eyes widened slightly. "Uh… Do you still want ice cream?" Kagami nodded and he continued, "We're stuck here in the mansion though, maybe next week after fencing class?"

"No. We can get in my car and drive around looking for André." Kagami smiled. "After all, you're my entertainer for the afternoon! As long as we come back before Mother finishes her meeting with Mr. Agreste, we should be fine."

"That's an excellent idea," started Adrien. He gulped. Maybe his chances of delivering that picture weren't gone yet. "Do you mind helping me out with something?"

"What do you need?" she asked.

He moved again his hand to the nape of his neck, and felt a sharp pain to the side of his palm.

"OUCH!" He couldn't help but whimper and hold his hand tight with the other one.

"Are you okay?" wondered Kagami.

"Yeah… sorry, I'll be back in a minute." He walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Barkk appeared and floated in front of his face. "What was the nip for this time Barkk? You will leave a mark eventually!"

"You're a liar. You said you weren't using her and... there you go. Literally five minutes after you say so, you use her."

Adrien growled. "I'm NOT _using_ her. I'm just trying to go to Janine's house and Kagami needs entertainment, you heard it yourself."

"You ARE using her. That's final." Barkk's gave him another disapproving glare. "You should tell her that you don't love her, not bribe her with the offer of an ice cream in order to fulfil your plans."

Adrien brought again his hand to the nape of his neck. "Well… I will talk to her…"

"When? Next year?" Barkk growled. "You should own your decisions, Adrien. If you know that you don't love her and that you love Ladybug, you should make things clear. The longer you drag it the worse it will be to tell the truth. Especially now that things are going well with the girl wearing the pigtails. Do you prefer Kagami finding out herself? That's not going to end well."

Barkk's serious gaze met Adrien's and they looked at each other for some time. Adrien had to eventually admit defeat and lower his gaze first. "Okay, all right… you have a point, Barkk, sorry. But… I need some time. It's complicated."

Suddenly, Kagami's voice came from his bedroom. "Are you okay, Adrien?"

He blushed the colour of Ladybug's suit. "Yeah, sorry," he said loudly and came out of the bathroom. Barkk hid again behind his back. He noticed that Kagami was sitting on his couch, so he walked to his desk chair and sat on it, moving it with his feet until he reached Kagami. He felt himself blushing even more as he continued, "Uh… last night I had a bit of… an embarrassing situation…" He stopped noticing the gleam of amusement that appeared in Kagami's eyes.

"I know, I've seen your picture on Instagram." She chuckled. "Nice pyjamas…" Her chuckle turned into a laugh. Why on Earth was everyone commenting on his pyjamas? He felt blood rushing to his face again.

"I wonder why Nathalie bothered to offer money to that girl to take the picture off. The entire town seems to have seen it already, before she did!" He groaned when Kagami started laughing even harder.

"It's not so funny. That girl, Janine, she was akumatised this morning because of it."

Kagami stopped laughing and gave him a surprised look. "Oh, so that was her. I was blocked on the road on my way to school."

"Yeah," Adrien said. "She got upset because Nathalie wanted her to delete the picture from her phone too. So one of my classmates, you may remember her, Alya, she runs the Ladyblog?" Kagami nodded. "Well, she somehow got involved in the fight and told the girl to send her the picture so she would get it blown up. Then she asked me to deliver it to her." He sighed. "I really wanted to apologise for having gotten her akumatised, that's why I didn't tell Nathalie that our fencing lesson had been cancelled."

Kagami put her hands on her hips. "You're telling me that you _lied_ because you wanted to use the free time you had gained with the cancelled lesson to go to some girl's house and give her a photograph?" She pretended to give him a disappointed look, but she immediately burst into a laugh when he nodded. "Are you planning to have your bodyguard with you when you go there?"

Adrien shook his head. "No… he's a bit intimidating, the whole purpose of the gesture is to apologise; I don't want to scare her."

"That's a scene I want to see." She laughed again.

Adrien brightened up. "Do you mean… you're going to help me?"

Kagami nodded. "Of course. But on the way there we need to talk." She gave him a decisive look that sent shivers down his spine. He wondered what she wanted to talk about, but he was truly relieved that Kagami could help him. He stood up from his chair and took a moment to put on a hoodie and grab his bag, a baseball hat and a pair of sunglasses, before following Kagami out of his room.

oOo

Adrien's gaze flickered between the car's window and Kagami's face, as his fingers tapped nervously on his thigh. They were blocked in the rush hour traffic, on their way to Collège Françoise Dupont to meet Alya.

"So… what did you want to talk to me about?" He tried to find a more comfortable position, but he didn't seem to find any. "Because there's some things that I should tell you as well."

Kagami glanced at him and folded her arms on her chest. "Do you want to go first or would you rather hear what I've got to say?"

"Ladies first." He gave her a nod.

Kagami smiled softly. "Ever the gentleman," she muttered. Then she looked at him and sat more comfortably on her seat, crossing her legs and resting her back on the backseat. She waited some time, for so long that Adrien started to think that she wasn't going to talk anymore. But eventually, she started, "I have been thinking a lot since last time I was with you."

"Hope they were good thoughts," Adrien joked nervously. He didn't know why, but the idea of Kagami thinking a lot gave him the creeps.

"Not really," she said. Okay, he definitely had licence to get the creeps. "After you refused to kiss me the other day, I had to give a very serious thought to what I want from my relationship with you."

Adrien lowered his gaze instantly, feeling Barkk shifting behind his head. "What do you mean?"

"I love you, Adrien." Kagami's eyes were serious, but her frown appeared sad. "I don't regret having taken the initiative and attempted to have a relationship with you."

"We're friends, right?" His heart was pounding madly in his chest. Kagami's glare caused all the blood to rush out of his face.

"Of course," she hissed. "Just very good _friends…_ " The emphasis on the last word made it clear to Adrien that she didn't feel the same way.

"Kagami… I did tell you that there was somebody else, and that I didn't want to change targets after all," he started, but she interrupted him abruptly.

"Adrien, we went to look for André's cart. We shared his ice cream. His _sweetheart_ ice cream. We were cuddling, and I tried to kiss you. That's not what 'good friends' do in my books."

Adrien looked at her sheepishly. "Sorry," he managed to say.

"Don't say sorry if you don't mean it. I am perfectly aware that you had told me you didn't want to change targets. And I knew well from the very start that you were very fond of someone else. I take my responsibility, as I'm the one who brought this failure upon myself. However," she said curtly, "I have often been confused by your actions, as they seldom reflect your words."

He rubbed his nape nervously. "I really am sorry, Kagami." He looked down. "You are a beautiful girl. I would lie if I said that I'm not attracted to you."

"But your heart belongs to someone else," she finished for him. He could only nod, slowly, his cheeks catching fire under her inquisitive look.

"Actually this is exactly what I wanted to talk about," he admitted.

"Don't tell me that you have clarified with yourself your feelings for Marinette!" Kagami looked surprised, but he was even more surprised. How did she know…

He saw her amused look and pouted. "What's so funny?"

"Adrien, it's very evident that you have a massive crush on Marinette." His face felt really hot when she said it. "And that she has an enormous crush on you."

His pout grew wider. "Was I the only one who didn't notice?"

"You… and her. Yes. I think you were the only ones." She laughed.

"Not fair." He pouted again and folded his arm on his chest, causing Kagami to giggle a bit more.

"As I said, I knew I was setting myself to fail, because it was evident that you both loved one another, even if you were so oblivious. But… I couldn't stop myself from doing it. I… loved you too much." Her amused grin fell from her face as she looked down. "Also, Marinette was my only friend here beside you. I didn't want to hurt her. But again… as much as I tried to talk myself out of it, as much as I told myself that I shouldn't try to take what was already taken, my feelings for you were too strong." Her voice cracked and Adrien felt a painful pang of guilt. "I had to give it a go, and I'm glad I did." She gave him a small smile. "I had some nice times with you, Agreste."

He mirrored her smile. "Me too, Tsurugi." As he said so, Kagami's sedan stopped in front of Collège Françoise Dupont. Adrien immediately noticed Alya sitting down on the stairs to the gate, waving at them. She had a very large envelope on her lap. She stood up when Adrien came out of the car and walked towards them.

"Don't know how you pulled it off, Sunshine, but I'm glad you did." She smiled at him and then waved at Kagami in the sedan.

"You need to thank Kagami for this. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her."

Alya gave a thumbs up at Kagami. "Thank you!" she said, and then put the large envelope in front of Adrien, nodding for him to pick it from her hands. "This is it. Her name and address are on the envelope."

And that's how Adrien found himself in front of a tall building in a street just a few blocks away from the convenience store he had dropped by the night before. Before getting out of Kagami's sedan he took great care in putting on his hat and sunglasses and covering his head completely with his hoodie, and although Kagami had laughed at how funny he looked and he himself felt a bit stupid, nobody around was giving him a second glance. He looked nervously at the gate in front of him and spent a little time checking the names on the plates, to ensure that Janine lived there. Yes, he could see her family name (he knew it was her family name as it was on the envelope) listed under number 16.

He looked sheepishly at the sedan and walked back towards it, knocking gently at the window until Kagami pulled it down. "Didn't you say that you wanted to come with me?" he asked, causing Kagami to chuckle.

"Are you getting cold feet, Adrien?" she retorted.

He gulped and felt blood rushing to his cheeks. "It's not that…"

"Then if it's not that, mister, just ring that bell and get in. I'll wait for you here. I don't trust this neighbourhood enough to leave my car unattended." He sighed. "Be quick," she finished saying before pulling the window up.

He sighed again, but then noticed that somebody was getting out of the gate and rushed there, managing to get in before the gate closed. At least one thing was done. He was inside. Now… he needed to find number 16. He started looking at the numbers on the doors and felt like a stalker. 4 floors up, finally he saw number 16 shining in the middle of a dark brown door.

Sweat was dripping from his hair as he approached the door, and he took his time taking the hoodie, baseball hat and sunglasses off and putting them into his bag, running his hands into his hair to fix it up, and breathing heavily, trying to calm down the fierce beating of his heart.

"Are you okay, Adrien?" asked Barkk, popping out from behind his neck. "You look uneasy."

"Understatement for sure." He blushed. "I don't know how postmen do it. I…" he gulped as he continued, "have never knocked at a stranger's door uninvited."

"Well, it's not as if she doesn't know you're coming!" Barkk mused.

"I know Alya told her I would bring her the picture, but it doesn't mean that she must have believed it or that she expects me to ring that bell right now." He cursed under his breath when he noticed that his voice was shaking. He was Chat Noir, for God's sake. He'd done even worse in his black suit. But as Adrien… he just hoped nobody would decide to put anything else online about this whole situation.

Okay… he breathed more heavily and decided that the only way he had to get out of this pickle was to borrow a little bit of confidence from his alter-ego in black spandex. After all, the girl was a fan. What could she do to him more than give him a hug and take another picture with him? Surely she must have learned by now to not advertise the fact that she had met him? There was nothing to worry about, was there? And then why was his heart racing so fast in his chest?

_Get a grip, Agreste!_ he thought. Maybe he could try to brighten her day by showing off a little his Chat Noir side and giving her a half an hour to remember. He fixed his clothes, picked up his baseball hat again and rang the bell, rushing to rest his back on the wall right in front of Janine's door, trying to pull a photo-shoot worthy pose, the envelope with the picture held firmly in his hand.

He heard someone saying, "Don't worry maman, I'll take this!" and saw the door opening revealing a girl maybe a couple of years older than him. She wasn't Janine, but looked a bit like her, the same dark brown long hair combed in a similar ponytail, the same brown eyes widened in shock. She wore a pair of hot pants that showed her legs off and an even more revealing tank top. He gulped awkwardly.

_Her sister,_ he thought. She had said she had sisters. "Hi," he started, taking his hat off and feigning confidence. "Is Janine at home? I have a postal delivery for her." He showed the envelope to the girl, who was still looking at him with her eyes wide and an ashen complexion on her cheeks.

"Who is it, mon coeur?" a voice said from inside the flat. Probably her mother. The girl was still staring at him, eyes wide, and was paling always more.

Shoot. Had he exaggerated a little bit? He pulled his back off the wall and moved closer to the door, eyeing the girl worryingly. "Are you okay?" he asked, but he saw her face cringe as he approached more so he stopped.

"HOLY FU... _mble_!" the girl half shouted. "Janine? Juliette? Maman? You've got to see THIS!"

_Fu… what?_ He raised an eyebrow and scratched his head trying to understand why a fumble should be holy, when it dawned on him. _Oh… OH…_ yes, of course, how stupid of him. He had just finished going through it in his mind when he heard a loud squeal… and he knew that Janine had seen him. He couldn't even say anything though, because he felt somebody dragging him inside the door, and because of the surprise he lost his balance and literally tumbled on them.

"Janine! Is that how you treat your guests?" Somebody helped him up and when he could have a look around he saw it was an older woman, probably Janine's mother. She did look very much like Janine and her sister too. "I'm really sorry, young man. These three can't stop talking about you, especially since last night. Would you like a cup of coffee? Please come inside and sit down."

He didn't want to come in and sit down, he wanted to give Janine her photo and go home, but a quick look at the three girls squealing near him and at the worried and eager to please mother on his side made him understand that he would have been very rude to refuse.

"Of course, thank you. I'll have some coffee. I take milk, with sugar." His hand ran to the nape of his neck. Kagami would be mad. This was going to take a while.

**Notes:**

**(1) 我睡觉九点 (Wǒ shuìjiào jiǔ diǎn): I sleep at nine o'clock.**

**(2) 我九点睡觉 (Wǒ jiǔ diǎn shuìjiào): I go to bed at nine o'clock.**

* * *

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**Author's note:**

**First of all, very big special thanks to "@River (but really a dragon)" from the Miraculous Fanworks Discord server for their help with the Chinese shown above! If you love Miraculous and you like writing and reading great fanfictions, discuss theories and news, find betas, find interesting challenges... please join our Miraculous Discord server! If you want to join, click** [ **here** ](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) **.**

**We're getting close to the end. I know, I hear you ;_; I'm very sad too. Another story coming to an end. But… I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it (especially the second part. I know, I'm sadistic ^^, Adrien is too nice for his own good!). The final chapter, "New Beginnings", will be out on Tuesday. Keep following me!**

**Again, thank you so much for the follows and favs. And for those who reviewed, thank you so much for making my day! An especially big thank you goes to Helena Vicentini on fanfiction net for her wonderful anonymous comment. Thank you so much!**

**Please review more and let me know what you think!**


	10. New Beginnings

Adrien lost count of how many hugs, kisses on the cheek, selfie and autographs he was asked for in the following few minutes. Especially the autographs, which all three girls, and even the mother, seemed to be determined to collect for everyone they knew. Then the coffee came, and he managed to get his hands back for a while. Although the fight for who was going to sit next to him started, and he had to be very careful while sipping his coffee, to avoid incidents involving his clothes. Or worse, the kind woman's couch. He ended up in the centre of the couch, with Janine and Josephine (he found out that this was the elder sister's name) on each side.

Eventually, his coffee finished and he managed to take advantage of the moment that Josephine and Juliette had brought the cup back into the kitchen to pick up the envelope and hand it to Janine.

"So… Alya told me what happened and I'm really sorry," he started, making sure that she picked up the envelope. "Has Nathalie been here yet?"

Janine's eyes hardened. "Yes, she has. She's a horrible woman, poor you for having to deal with a person like her every day."

Adrien sighed. If only she knew… that in reality Nathalie was one of the nicest people he had to deal with at home! But he didn't say that out loud; he didn't want his fans to pity him. "You say that because you haven't met my father," he said eventually.

"He does look very stern from what I remember of him on TV," Janine said and he nodded. "It must be hard for you since your mother disappeared." She gave him a dreamy look and sighed deeply, and he lowered his gaze, not feeling confident enough to look at her.

He didn't know what to say to that. But as he was thinking of how to get out of the question without digging a deep hole for himself, his phone started buzzing. He gave it a quick look and saw a message from Kagami.

**[Kagami: Are you going to be long? Do you need rescuing?]**

He sighed as he noticed the curious look Janine had given to his phone. Josephine and Juliette chose that very moment to come back inside the sitting room, followed by their mother who was carrying a tray with a few croissants and pastries.

"Was that your girlfriend? The Japanese girl?" asked Janine suddenly.

Adrien felt blood rushing to his face, but before he could answer, her mother intervened, "Janine! Are these questions to ask our guest? Leave him a bit of privacy!"

Adrien smiled brightly at the remark. "Thank you, madame. But it's okay, I don't mind answering this question." He turned to Janine and looked at her as he said it, "Yes, it's the Japanese girl. Her name is Kagami. She's a good friend of mine, she gave me a lift here."

"She's not your girlfriend?" Three sets of brown eyes looked at him hopefully, and he felt his face getting warmer.

"No?" He saw their eyes shining with happiness.

"But the media…" said the youngest girl, Juliette. She was a couple of years younger than him, he had learned.

"Oh, the media know nothing," snapped Josephine and then snorted. "All those programmes we watched saying that he was getting hitched, and here he is, telling us that she's just a friend."

 _Getting hitched?_ "What?" He couldn't stop himself, he had to ask.

"Ah don't worry, just stupid gossip programs." Then she gave him a sly smile and looked at him pointedly. "Then if you're not engaged with that girl, it means you're still available…" Janine and Josephine drew closer to him and he started feeling a bit hot.

"Not really," he had to say. They both moved back and he breathed better.

"So you do have a girlfriend?" asked Juliette.

"Is it the girl you were seen with that time at the cinema? The one who wore her pyjamas and the towel in her hair?" This was Josephine. He blushed profusely and a triumphant smirk appeared on the three girls' face.

"So you both seem to be having a thing for going around town wearing your night clothes huh?" Adrien couldn't help but blush more at Janine's question. His right hand ran to the nape of his neck as he smiled nervously at her.

"More coffee?" asked their mother. He put his hand up in a negative gesture.

"No, thank you." Drinking more coffee would have only caused a little problem he was starting to feel become a bit more difficult to deal with. Last thing he wanted was to have to use the bathroom in a fan's house. No, that wasn't the best idea at all.

He turned again towards Janine and picked up his wallet, taking a twenty euro bill out of it. "Look, I really wanted to say sorry for having upset you, and thank you for helping me out. And… I wanted to return your money to you. I never intended to take it from you, by the way, but thanks." He handed the bill to her and she moved her hands to say no. "I insist. This isn't my father's money, it's _my_ money. Please allow me to return it to you."

She took the twenty euro note and smiled softly, and then stood up to hand it to her mother. "Thanks then. That was Maman's change." She sat down again and opened the envelope he had brought with him, taking out the picture. "Wow, the Ladyblog lady was true to her words, she really blew the photo up!" Adrien felt a bit embarrassed seeing the picture again, but the expression of pure delight on Janine's face made it completely worth it.

Then he saw that his phone was buzzing again, and he stood up, smiling at the moans of the three girls. "Sorry to disappoint you, ladies, but I think it's time for me to go home." He showed them his phone and Kagami's message asking again if he needed rescuing. "My Japanese friend is worried for her car, she doesn't want to leave it unattended."

"Well, yes, it's not the best idea in this neighbourhood," their mother agreed.

Adrien opened his bag and took out his hoodie, hat and sunglasses, which he promptly wore, raising a few giggles around the sofa.

"Thank you for your hospitality!" He shook hands with Janine's mother and gave a hug to the three girls (who of course didn't waste the chance to give him another kiss on the cheek), but eventually managed to get out of the door and started walking quickly down the stairs.

"Phew… I thought they were never going to let you go," said Barkk from somewhere inside his shirt.

He smiled at the kwami and patted her on the head. "Yeah, me too… but now I really want to go back home." He reached the ground floor landing and opened the gate of the building, smiling softly at Kagami who was tapping her index finger hurriedly on her watch, before quickly entering her car.

"Deed done?" she asked with a smile, and when he nodded, she commanded the car to return to the Agreste mansion.

oOo

When Adrien returned home, Mrs. Tsurugi had just finished her meeting with his father. So Adrien waved bye to Kagami and, after listening to the whole schedule that Nathalie had managed to alter for him for the next three days, was finally allowed to return to his room. He didn't even turn the lights on, or look around, and rushed to the toilet. After having taken care of the most urgent matter, he took his time to brush his teeth and get ready for bed. He was glad that tonight wasn't a patrol night, because he really needed some sleep, and he intended to do just that as soon as he was getting out of the bathroom. But as he put his hand on the door handle and opened the door, his eyes were suddenly met by artificial light, which surprised him, counting that when he came in just a few minutes before the room was in complete darkness.

He thought that Nathalie may have forgotten to tell him something about his schedule. He thought that maybe his father, very uncharacteristically, wanted to wish him good night. But what he didn't expect was to step out of the bathroom and find Lady Noire laying on his bed, flat on her stomach, her chin resting on the back of her hands. As soon as she saw him, she sat up, legs crossed, and smiled at him. He nervously smiled back.

"Huh? Lady… Noire?" he managed to say and gulped awkwardly.

"Bonsoir, Beau Gosse(1)! I was waiting for you," she purred. He gulped again. _Beau Gosse_?

"H-hi… what do I o-owe the h-honour…" He was stammering and he kicked himself for doing it. His hands felt like ice blocks, although the place felt suddenly very hot. What was she doing there? And on his bed? And… beau gosse… what? Why?

She picked something up from her side pocket and threw it to him. He caught it automatically and then looked at what he caught and his heart started racing. The Ladybug earrings?

"Put them on," she commanded.

He immediately obeyed, but then gave her a really questioning look. "What… why?" he asked breathlessly, as Tikki appeared near him in a twirl of pink light. She smiled at him and looked at both of them expectantly.

Lady Noire stood up from his bed and walked towards him in what looked to him to be the most sensual way he had ever seen her walking, twirling around her long tress with her right hand. She smiled softly at him and used her tress to catch him, wrapping it around his back and drawing him closer. Was he dreaming or something? Adrien felt like combusting on the spot. He must have fallen asleep in the bathroom and must be dreaming now. Yes, that must be it. There was no chance in hell that his Lady was going to be in his room, at this time of night, flirting so blatantly with him. Wasn't it?

Wasn't it?

He gulped.

"There was a game, which you didn't know about and I'm sorry for keeping you in the dark. I really am," she whispered into his ear, giving him shivers. "And there was a winner… who deserves to get his prize." She gave him a kiss on the cheek which left him beet-red in the face and breathless. "Come on, I know you know the words."

A shiver ran down his spine as the full weight of what she was saying hit him like a brick in the head. "A-are you sure?" He felt so stiff and his heart was pounding so madly in his chest that he thought he was going to pass out there and then. But when he saw Lady Noire nodding, he said it breathlessly, "Spots on."

Lady Noire moved slightly to fully take in the flash of pink light wrapping around him and her gaze softened even more when the familiar polka-dotted and black spandex covered his body.

"Hi…?" he muttered shyly and smiled nervously at the warm smile of pure triumph Lady Noire gave to him.

"I knew it was you, but I needed to be 100% sure, Minou." She blushed profusely and made to move off a little bit, but he held her close and she widened her eyes.

"You were talking about winning games… and prizes…" It was his turn to grin now and her turn to blush beet-red. "And why… this?" He looked at the polka dotted costume on him and the black costume on her, and raised an eyebrow. "Why not… the other way round?"

She looked down. "A girl can have her own… dreams to check out…" Then her eyes got a determined look in them; she moved her gaze back to hold his and stared at him for a very long time.

A VERY long time. She cupped a clawed hand on his cheek and Adrien felt like melting. "Aw… were you dreaming of Mr. Bug, M'lady?" He smirked and she turned even more red. "You were!… Aw, I'm flattered. I always wanted to be the man of your dreams!"

She released him and gave him a soft push on his right shoulder. "Stop," she groaned. "I couldn't help it, okay? It was Alya's fault, she kept rubbing your pictures in my face and saying how much your eyes looked like Adrien's… and eventually her words sank in."

She tried to backtrack, but Adrien caught her and lifted her chin with his hand, forcing her to look at him in the eyes again. "Was that why you were looking at me so intently this morning?" She nodded slowly and his heart went into overdrive. "Did the prize… you were talking about involve any… kissing…?" he asked breathlessly as his lips moved slowly but steadily towards hers. He thought his heart was going to explode into his chest when she nodded again.

She gave him a lovesick look that was probably mirrored closely by his own, because he had never felt more lovesick in his life. It was going to happen, and now. And he wasn't going to forget it this time! "So, with your permission…" he whispered softly before closing all gaps.

Their lips met, voraciously. He felt as if a whole kilowatt of electricity had suddenly gone through his gut as he wrapped his arms around her waist and she pulled herself up, straddling him with her legs. He didn't know how it happened, but he ended up covering her jaw and her neck with kisses, laying on top of her on his bed, her hands running through his hair and his own hands exploring her waist and her back. When he pulled himself on his elbows to breathe and looked at her, her eyes looked back with such adoration that he felt a knot in his throat thinking at how lucky he had been.

"If I knew that your prizes were so enticing, I would have worked harder to beat you at UMS3 in the past!" She gave him a smack on the shoulder and tried to wriggle out from underneath him.

"Ha, you never! You would never be able to beat me at that, mister!"

"Wanna bet? I might have won in the past, if I had had the right motivation!" He pouted, and they both ended up laughing and hugging each other, rolling on the bed, until their stomachs started hurting. They eventually laid flat on their backs on the bed, holding hands. Adrien didn't want the moment to end, but eventually, he decided that he needed to ask or he may regret it the day after. "By the way, M'lady… would you mind giving me Plagg back? I enjoyed the company of Barkk, but you know, I have a whole stash of Camembert in that press, getting stinkier every day." He sat up and pointed out Plagg's press, feigning disgust.

Lady Noire laughed and also sat up. "Of course, Chaton. I never intended to keep you away from Plagg long term. I should never have taken him away from you that way, really, and I'm sorry that I did." She smiled softly at him. "Claws in," she whispered, and as her transformation fell, revealing Marinette, his heart started thumping madly again.

"I knew it was you, my cheeky fortune teller," he said and stroked gently her cheek with his thumb. "But it was amazing to see anyway!"

She smiled softly and was going to say something, but as she opened her mouth to talk, something black zoomed in between their noses and Adrien was left staring into Plagg's electric green eyes.

"Why is my cheese press locked, kid?" Plagg frowned and folded his paws on his chest.

"Because your stinky cheese was making me sick," answered Barkk, popping out from somewhere behind Adrien's head. "And besides, you can go through matter, so why are you complaining?" She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Tsk," snorted Plagg. "Says the one who stank my favourite hiding place with her beef sticks. Adrien, you better wash that shirt before you go to school in the morning!"

"My beef sticks smell so much better than your stinky Camembert!" Barkk stuck her tongue out again at Plagg and dashed away giggling, as Plagg groaned and followed her.

"You better give me my Sugarcube back, kid, or I'll lose my wit here with this cheeky bitch!" He stopped on his tracks and looked sheepishly at the two teens on the bed and added quickly, "By the way, for her, that's not an insult!" And then he resumed dashing after the God of Premonition.

Adrien laughed at the remark, following with his gaze the black shape of Plagg flying around his room. "So I suppose we can't keep her, Plagg?" He chuckled. "Her love advice was very useful, I was hoping you could settle with her."

"NO WAY!" shouted Plagg, appearing from the top level of his bedroom just long enough to glare at Adrien. "You get rid of her, or you get rid of me. We can't live under the same roof!"

"He's right!" agreed Barkk popping her head from behind one of his video games.

"That's where you were. Let me catch you!"

"No way! Come and get me, Stinky Cat!"

"Adrien! Sugarcube, please!" was the last thing Adrien heard Plagg say before he disappeared again.

Adrien sighed and rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay… Spots off…" he muttered and his transformation fell, making Tikki reappear in front of them. She dashed away immediately, probably looking for Plagg.

Adrien took the earrings off and gave them back to Marinette, who returned his ring to him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the familiar sensation of the metal wrapping around his right ring finger. When he looked at Marinette, he could see her frowning.

"I'm sorry I took your ring away from you, Minou. And Plagg too. I… didn't think it through," she admitted, looking down.

"Very uncharacteristically of you," he commented, but as she nodded, he added, "Don't worry, M'lady. Barkk was a lovely companion for a few days and she actually helped me a lot and gave me some very good advice, I wasn't joking. She… she's quite a character."

"I haven't been able to know her very well, because she's always been in the Miracle Box until now. But I was surprised by how useful her power has been during the last fight," Marinette mused. "We should consider finding her a holder."

"She also has a thing for Sass," whispered Adrien into her ear, to which Marinette giggled. "Either that or she just talks about Sass a lot!"

"I heard you!" said Barkk, popping her head from behind a book.

"You know he's right, Barkk, stop pretending!" Plagg popped his head from his press and smirked. "You've always had a sweet spot for the Snake!"

"Repeat that and I'm going to make you pay for it!" Barkk held her breath and rushed inside Plagg's press. Both Adrien and Marinette started laughing at the scene.

"Since you know her so well now, would you mind suggesting a holder for her?" Marinette looked at him expectantly, and his heart started racing again.

"Uh… you mean… you really want to… share some responsibilities?"

She moved closer to him on the bed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and neck, looking at him straight in the eyes. "When Alya suggested it today, I didn't like the thought, but the idea is growing on me. We're partners, after all, and responsibilities feel lighter if shared."

Adrien smiled one of his brightest smiles and wrapped her up in a hug. "Thank you! I promise I won't take this responsibility lightly!

She gave him a tight squeeze, but didn't break the hug to answer, "I'm sure you won't!"

"Barkk is very sassy, very energetic", Adrien mused. "She has clear ideas of what she wants and is extremely good at giving advice and at growing your confidence. Do you intend to give the Miraculouses permanently this time, or only temporarily again?"

Marinette moved her hand to her chin and started staring in mid air, surely concentrating on the question. After a couple of minutes, she looked at him and said, "Permanently. I don't think that the temporary holders idea worked well last time. It only slowed us down in battle, and _still_ put the holders and the Miraculouses in danger, eventually. I'm really gutted that I now need to choose all new holders even for the Miraculouses that I had already assigned. And being with the holders permanently will help their bond grow stronger, which will be more useful in a fight."

"That's all very good reasoning," said Adrien. "If that's the case, I do think I have an idea for just the people we could give the Dog and the Snake Miraculous to!" He reached for her ear and whispered something into it.

She looked at him and smiled brightly. "That's a great idea, Chaton, well done! You're right, Nathaniel would benefit a lot from someone as sassy and as decisive as Barkk in his life. He was also one of the nicest but most cunning akumas we ever had, and has a great sense of justice. He's surely worthy of a Miraculous. And I can see your point about Marc getting Sass. Definitely worth a try." She messed his hair with her hand and suddenly widened her eyes and stared at him.

"Huh?" he wondered.

"Nothing, just… with your hair messed up you really look more like Chat Noir!" She giggled softly.

"That's the reason why I spend about an hour every morning to fix my hair…" As he said that, he felt Marinette's hand reaching his hair again and messing it even more.

"I kind of prefer you like this, Chaton," she said. "We should make a deal. I keep my hair down and you keep your Chat Noir hair."

"No way!" Adrien pouted. "Everyone in town would recognise me if I did that."

"Nah…" Plagg popped his head out of his press to say, "People are blind here. Nobody will notice anything… and you could stay in bed an extra hour!"

Adrien rolled his eyes and huffed loudly, and Marinette giggled on his side. "Oh it doesn't matter, Chaton. Keep your hair as you like it in public, as long as you let me ruffle it when it's only us." She gave another quick ruffle to his golden mop and when she finished, he smirked and wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her closer.

"That I can definitely do," he said, sealing his deal with a kiss.

oOo

The following evening, a certain red-head and another certain black haired teenager found a black-red polka spotted box in their school bags and got the surprise of their lives.

But _that's_ another story.

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Note:

(1) - Yes, you guessed it. "Hot stuff" in French.

* * *

**Author’s Note:**

**And there you go *sighs* another story comes to an end! As usual, I feel so deflated and sad :( I really enjoyed writing this story and I hope that you also have loved it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

**Just so you know, the idea for this story came when I saw this wonderful art at @kamerimuu’s twitter page a couple of months back** [ **https://twitter.com/kamerimuu/status/1283682145551228928/photo/1** ](https://twitter.com/kamerimuu/status/1283682145551228928/photo/1)

**I must say I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get almost any reviews for my chapter 9. What was wrong with it? I know it didn’t have Marinette in it, but it was a very much needed part of the story and it had to be written. Oh well… I hope you will like the ending! Double reviews on this one? Pretty pawlese? *OWO face***

**PS: a couple of notes. First of all, the awesome** [ **Rose Manley** ](https://www.deviantart.com/rosehealer02) **is publishing a comic version of this fanfiction on her deviantart account, you can read it** [ **here** ](https://www.deviantart.com/rosehealer02/gallery/74950906/miraculous-a-game-of-bug-and-chat)

**Secondly, when she read the ending of this story, Rose started pushing for a sequel. So I ask you all here… do you want to read the story of Nathaniel and Marc? Please let me know… AFTER telling me what you thought of this story, please :P**

**Third: I am very proud of having contributed to the Adrinette zine** [ **“In the Rain”** ](https://adrienettezine.tumblr.com/) **with a story that is still unpublished, “The Eye Opener”. The zine will be out on September the 30th, and at that point I will be allowed to publish the story in English here. I may publish the story in French and Italian before that date, so if you see it popping on your email, pay attention to the language the summary is written on ;)**

**Fourth, I am in the middle of writing another story, with a much more angsty and darker tone, and will publish it soon, please stay tuned for "When Magic Fails". I may post a sniplet later, if you ask nicely :P**

**Thank you so much for following me and for all the lovely comments, favs and follows.**


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